Mephiles returns:The Book of Moon
by Sonicgirl582
Summary: This is the SEQUEL to SORROW ON WHEELS. This is YAOI. After last times long adventure and battle Mephiles has returned with the help of another character. Will Sonic and the gang find a way to destroy Mephiles once and for all!  ON HOLD.
1. Chapter 1

Mephiles breaks free

The moonlight covered the forbidden forest with its eerie glow as a single black cloud slowly crept across the sky, the wind whistled through the very tall mushrooms that were once again glowing with the full moon at midnight in the `Time of the Great Light`. Sloppy marsh water bubbled and gurgled at the mushroom's base as everything seemed calm and peaceful...too calm.

The Forest Guide wandered around the outside of the spirit temple, a blue orb of light floating around her as her staff sank slightly into the damp and soft earth. Her orange hair swayed gently in the small breeze that blew through the swamp as she kept guard over the temple and also the danger hidden within in. Her blue eyes were deep with thought.

Since her new found friends had left Tikal had been desperate to see someone in particular, and that person was Knuckles. Tikal had not heard the bone whistle for a while now and deep down she thought that maybe they had forgotten the young forest guide destined to remain at her post for eternity.

With a hefty sigh she continued to walk around the vine covered stone outer walls of the spirit temple, the marshy ground squelched beneath her feet as the blue orb that was Sonics fathers' soul lit the way. Little did she know... she wasn't alone.

A silent shadow slunk away behind dying birch trees as it watched her with its blue eyes. An evil grin plastered its face as it slowly headed towards the temple. It remained undetected as Tikal had her back to it. Its feet were silent as it ran and dodged its way towards the temples dark entrance. It remained hidden until that one, small, black cloud enveloped the moon for the briefest of moments.

Its eyes widened. This was its chance. It bolted across the shadowed land with fast yet elegant sprints as it managed to completely enter the dark temple.

Darkness swallowed the shadow as it blended in within the temple, the purple torches hanging on the walls of the narrow corridor reflected off its blue eyes as it continued towards its target. His steps remained silent with expert skill as he continued to infiltrate the dark and ancient temple.

_Now is finally the time to get back at Blue...and this time...I will win_, the stranger thought wickedly as it finally found the giant room where blue souls floated around illuminating the dark room and revealing ancient drawings all over the cold stone walls.

The spirits sensed the dangerous presence and flicked around nervously as it started to ascend the many stone steps towards the glowing purple crystal residing on the altar at the top.

xxxx

Tikal's closed eyes sharply opened as she stopped dead in her tracks. Something was not right. The wind had stopped and a chill crawled up her spine at the sudden silence. Sonics fathers' soul blinked its light sharply, obviously also feeling the strange disturbance.

"Something's not right," Tikal spoke her thoughts aloud to the spirit hanging around her head. "But I don't know what."

xxxx

Blue eyes locked onto the purple glowing crystal now in front of it as the spirits flew wildly around the room in fear. In fear of the beast within the crystal, the beast which was Mephiles. The stranger lifted its fist sharply above its head. Its eyes glinted with something akin to hatred.

"I think it is finally time. It is over Blue...You will be outmatched!" The male voice shouted as he forcefully threw his fist down.

A giant smash filled the room. The spirits froze. It was deadly silent. The crystal shards tumbled off the alter clinking as they hit and fell down the steps. The purple torches surrounding the room were suddenly blown out by an invisible force. Evil laughter filled the black room...the laughter of Mephiles.

xxxx

Tikal felt a sudden jolt of dark energy wash over her, the same dark energy she had encountered when she had sealed Mephiles' soul away. It hit her internal magic with the force of a lightning bolt and she dazedly stepped back where she was outside the temple, her eyes glazed over at the brutal force behind that power.

Sonics father s' soul flashed in alarm before flying swiftly into the temple. Tikal followed close behind panting as she entered the now unlit temple, pure power could be felt up ahead in the soul room as thoughts ran wildly through her mind.

The strange dark power up ahead was somehow draining her magic ever so slowly as her body started to feel numb from the experience. This was more than she had experienced the first time she had met Mephiles, he had come back...stronger.

Tikal gasped as her heart started to pound from her magic draining, her breaths became laboured and her legs now only lazily moved. The blue soul stopped as it flashed at her in warning, they needed to get there and they needed to get their now.

"I can't...its too strong!" Tikal managed to gasp out as she fell to her knees, her staff clattered to the floor as the dark power up ahead pulsated through her body in waves far stronger than she could ever imagine. There was no denying it...Mephiles was back.

With a groan she grasped her staff, Sonics fathers' soul suddenly started flying around in distress as he knew what she was going to do.

"I...have no choice," Tikal whispered, the corners of her vision were turning black with unconsciousness. "It is our final hope."

With the last ounces of her magic Tikal chanted some words in another language and in a cloud of blue sparkly smoke an ancient, black, worn-out book appeared in her other hand, her grip on it weak and effortless. The spine was laced with silver thread that glowed in the darkness of the corridor; the front cover had a large, smooth, white stone embedded in the centre which had a silvery smoke swirling around within it. The title said in silver letters, `The Book of Moon`.

"We must send an alarm to them...to Sonic and the others," Tikal's voice was forced as her eye lids started to droop; nearly all of her magical energies had been drained. The blue orb seemed to understand at hearing his sons' name. They had to give up and escape to warn Sonic.

Tikal's exhausted voice echoed down the pitch black corridor as she teleported herself and the soul away, a bright blue flash sharply lit the corridor as they vanished.

The stranger was around the corner in the darkness, his pair of blue eyes mockingly staring at the spot where the pathetic Forest Guide had laid.

"Watch out Blue...Scourge is back...and I am not alone." The male voice laughed as Mephiles' evil laughter echoed behind him in the unseen darkness.

In his gloved hand he carried a mirror with black stones embedded around the mirror piece, in the mirror he saw just who he was laughing about...Sonic.

**END OF CHAPTER**

**Well here you go; this is the first chapter to the sequel of Sorrow on wheels. I have got loads of things in store for you in this story including some unexpected twists. Hope you like it. Please review.**


	2. The return home

**Sorry it has been a while but I had my second batch of mocks and had no time to complete what I started. It is the Christmas holidays now and I will try to get in as much as possible. Sorry you had to wait...but I promise it will be worth it.**

The return home

It is now autumn in Soleanna with the summer heat fading away into the past, along with a horrible yet thrilling adventure that had set our hero's on the edge.

An early morning frost had settled gracefully on the many calm rivers flowing through Soleanna and the trees were becoming bare with the coming winter, the brown crispy leaves covered the ground and crunched under foot as a gang of familiar hero's walked down the streets.

The sun was only just rising above the graceful city as Sonic breathed in the fresh air of a new day, they had only just returned from a relaxing month of vacation at Adabat granted by the GUN commander and were now working their way home.

"So...when is your wedding again Knux?" Sonic asked sheepishly, knuckles had told him at least ten times over the holiday, but with a sexy black and ruby hedgehog as your partner it is pretty easy to forget everything else.

Sonic gave a sideways glance at that same hedgehog next to him and he was rewarded with a glance in return by his partners crimson eyes. However, Sonic was not sure if Shadow was also thinking of him in the same way, judging by his rolling eyes and a sigh of frustration at Sonics lack of memory it was clear he was actually thinking`_ you are such a moron Faker`._

Knuckles growled low in his throat but stopped whatever outburst was meant to be spat by a poke in the arm and a glare from none other than Rouge, his bride to be.

"To save another volcanic eruption from Knuckles I will say this time Faker. We are at the beginning of September now; their wedding is at the beginning of November. Practically two months from now." Shadow said calmly, casually wrapping an arm around Sonics waist, not afraid what passer by's thought.

Rouge gave him a look of gratitude as Shadow returned it with a small smile and pulled his cream coloured rucksack further up his arm since he had a habit of only having it hanging from one arm, the other arm preoccupied with Sonic.

Rouge gazed at the two with adoration, the two hedgehogs were perfect for each other and had both gone through their own share of hard times. Sonic had forbidden anyone to speak about his...disability stage; it brought back bad memories of desperation and sorrow. They had all agreed, but knuckles sometimes let it slip and was earned a good wallop from Rouge for it.

Rouge watched with her sapphire eyes as she raised her left hand closer to her face and admired the giant, sparkling, diamond engagement ring glittering in the morning sun. She remembered when she had admired it exactly the same way as she sunbathed on the beach of Adabat.

During their stay in Adabat not only had they received the letter from Shadows saviours Blaze the reporter and Silver her top photographer, but they had also received a letter from pearl from Apotos. The young blonde haired girl that almost looked like Maria had thanked Rouge for the pendent that she had found in the haunted Village. Rouge shivered as she remembered finding it.

**Finally she stopped in the middle of the room...in the middle of the chaos. As she looked at the true horror of what was once a house she finally managed to find what had caught her eye earlier. Bending down onto her knees onto the torn yellow rug of the living room a single tear fell from her eyes. There, on the floor, lay a beautiful pure gold necklace sparkling in the sunlight pouring through the shattered window. It had a diamond embedded in the locket, the golden chain snapped.**

Rouge had the vision of Pearls actual past at touching that necklace, her father Simon had told Pearl that her mother was lost at sea...when in fact she was murdered by Mephiles in his wolf form so many years ago. Pearl admitted she was hurt by the lies, but now understood why her father forbid her to go to the haunted village. All was forgiven.

"Hey Rouge, are you alright? You seem distant." Shadows voice was just a muffled whisper in her ears as she forced herself to snap out of it. When she finally looked up at him she smiled at the worry and concern in her friend's usually emotionless mask of a face.

"I am fine Hun, I am just thinking about the wedding." She lied, Shadow saw straight through it but decided against pushing her for information, he knew that she would tell him when she was ready.

Knuckles was being strangely quiet as he was playing with the bone whistle around his neck, he wouldn't admit it encase he hurt Rouges feeling but he missed Tikal and the forest echidna terribly. He had believed that he was the last of his kind; before he met Tikal who had such a similar fate tied to her Spirit Temple...Like him tied to the master emerald. His fist squeezed firmly around the whistle at this thought.

"Where is Tails again?" knuckles suddenly spoke up, trying to distract himself.

"Well you know that old rust bucket of a plane we took from GUN to get to Apotos," Sonic began with his usual cocky smirk as the others nodded. "Since Tails lost the Tornado he is remodelling, upgrading and modernising the old GUN plane. It will look awesome when it's done."

"Wow, those three words are a bit big for you aren't they?" knuckles sniggered as Sonic gave a glare that could rival shadows.

"That is quite a glare Sonic; I see Shadow is rubbing off on you." The echidna continued to mock as Shadow also started glaring at that comment, both ganging up on him.

"Well... at least I don't clutch a bone like it is a security blanket." Sonic spat with venom in his voice, his well known short temper breaking already. Knuckles was about to retort when he realised he was indeed gripping the bone whistle around his neck, he bit it back as they continued walking towards Sonics house.

"Come on guys, we haven't been home for an hour yet and you already look like you are going to murder each other." Rouge broke in, feeling the tension getting so thick between the three boys that she could literally cut it with a knife. She feared knuckles safety the most since Shadow was indeed having a hard time being patient and an angry Shadow was a deadly Shadow.

Silence filled the group and the only sound was the birds singing their morning song, the peaceful atmosphere did not suit the situation at all at the moment. They walked the rest of the way in silence and Sonic put his hand within his head quills to pick out his keys, reaching out to unlock the door with a satisfying click. The door had been replaced by GUN for free since they had broken it down before; it was painted a nice shade of green which Shadow had come to learn was Sonics favourite colour. All came in happily, dumping their bags against the now closed front door. Shadows' cream one, Sonics' green one, Rouges' purple and Knuckles' orange one were dumped down carelessly.

Shadow had to restrain a scream as walking into the cream coloured living room he came face to face with a giant, black, house spider crawling disgustingly slow on the wall opposite the living room door. His normally tan coloured muzzle went three times paler than normal as he forced his muscles to un-tense themselves. Shadow forced himself to move since he couldn't let his reputation slip, Rouge and Sonic knew but if Knuckles found out the fearless Shadow was afraid of puny spiders he would never let him live it down.

Seeing Shadows strange shade in skin colour he followed his partner's line of sight to see what had caused his lover such distress. He immediately spotted it and smiled gently, going over and catching the black insect in his gloved hands before gently putting it out of the window. When he turned back to Shadow his black counter part had a purely thankful look.

Rouge plonked herself comfortably on the cream sofa with a sigh as she watched all three boys travel to the kitchen for a snack; Knuckles had decided to take the bone whistle off by Sonics comment and had placed it on the glass circular table. It immediately caught her eye as she leant forward to touch it.

The atmosphere suddenly felt tense again and she hesitated, maybe it was because she was about to touch something that was not rightfully hers...or it was something else, a warning maybe. Her ocean blue eyes narrowed at the preposterous thought as she swallowed down the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat unexpectedly. She whizzed her head round to the living room door, still open with general conversation echoing from the kitchen. There was a strange sensation of someone else being in the room, someone else's presence, but when she glanced around she was all alone.

Plucking up the courage she touched the smooth white surface of the bone, a finger tracing the air hole where you should blow. Suddenly white filled her vision with a heart stopping white flash. Sickly green eyes appeared. Evil laughter filed her head. Gasping she jolted back as if shocked. Her breaths came in large gulps. Her eyes were wide in disbelief and fear. Her heart pounded mercilessly within her chest. The vision was so quick she swore she never saw it...but it was there, clear as crystal in her minds eye.

"Rouge?" all three males were standing in the doorway, keeping their distance as they stared at something, or someone...behind Rouges sofa. Rouge felt eyes watching her from behind and shivered as she slowly turned her head...


	3. Tikal and the Book of Moon

Tikal and the Book of Moon

Rouge felt eyes watching her from behind and shivered as she slowly turned her head...

Tikal was standing behind the sofa, her eyes fixed on Rouge as Sonics fathers' soul floated in the air around her illuminating the walls in his blue glow.

"Tikal!" knuckles cried out as he was the first one to awake form the shock, he ran towards her with glee but stopped abruptly in his tracks when he noticed she was carrying a book of some sort. When he made eye contact with her he almost gasped audibly, eyes that were once a blue to rival Rouges were white and dead like. Knuckles took a step back with wide eyes. Tikals' eyes were emotionless, almost hollow and devoid of any sort of energy and being an echidna he could sense her magical exhaustion.

"_It is only temporary, my eye colour and emotions will return once I have the magical energy to do so."_ Tikal confirmed his suspicions in a monotone, mouth not even twitching, it was then knuckles realised she spoke to him through his mind since no one else had heard.

Rouge jumped up and spun round to face their visitor, obviously confused as she also stared at the black book in Tikals' hands, watching the giant, smooth white stone on the cover with white smoke swirling within it as if she was in a trance. It was old, that much was obvious by its tattered condition, but the silver thread that seemed to glow and the strange oval stone embedded in the front cover put her off it some what. It was strange, seeing the white smoke swirling within the stone seemed to make Rouge shiver. It was also obvious that the book wasn't natural either.

Sonics fathers' soul came over to hover by his son who cautiously flinched, but was relaxed by the familiar presence of his father and the bell sound that the soul elicited.

"I have obviously come for a reason, a reason that you guys should know since I wouldn't leave my homeland for a simple visit trip." She continued to stand completely still, not moving an inch as she spoke in that creepy monotone. Her eyes staring off into the distance at something only she could see.

Knuckles carefully took a step forward to examine the cover of the black book she was holding.

"The Book of Moon?" he asked aloud as he admired the fashionable silver letters of the title.

"Great, just when I thought we could get a break for a while." Sonic sighed as he sat on the single sofa opposite the three-seat one Rouge had once sat on. He crossed one leg over the other casually and put his chin in his hand, his expression unreadable.

"We did, Faker; we have had a month break in Adabat remember." Shadow stated in his usual cool tone as he crossed his arms, another habit of his.

"Yeah, but I meant in my home, I just want to stay here and chill for at least a week before going off again." Sonics voice was muffled by his hand but was still understandable; Shadow said nothing for he also felt the same way and could not blame Sonic.

"I have come to warn you...Mephiles has returned." The silence after Tikals words was deafening, it seems just mentioning the demons' name had an effect on all of them. But it mostly affected Shadow, his ruby eyes misting over with images from the past, images of when Mephiles had actually taken his shadow to form himself. At that Shadow looked at the wall that everyone else's shadows were against from the morning light. He didn't have one.

"I should have known he had come back. Whilst in Adabat I _had_ a shadow since he was sealed away, but now..." Shadow trailed off as he looked at the empty space where his shadow should be, it made him feel unreal, not solid like the others, like a ghost.

Shadow jumped but hid it expertly as he felt a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, Sonics hand. Facing his lover and looking into his emerald eyes he understood that Sonic was trying to reassure him that it wasn't his fault.

_How can I be so sure...when it was my shadow that formed him in the first place?_ Shadow questioned Sonic mentally knowing the blue hedgehog could not hear.

"Well, I have come to show you the final option...our last hope," Tikals voice was suddenly filled with emotion causing everyone to whip their heads round to make eye contact with the ocean blue eyes they all knew. "Sorry about that, magical exhaustion has physical effects too."

All heads looked at each other for a brief second before all started sitting down, Sonic back in his single sofa, Shadow in another single sofa next to him, Tikal in the middle seat of the three-seat sofa, Rouge on her right and Knuckles on her left. All seats were filled. The blue soul happy to just float in the air above Tikal.

"This is the Book of Moon, an almighty powerful book and the only one of its kind. It lies within my hidden library below the spirit temple where the shelves are filled with books of magic. It holds the most powerful spells including the forbidden spells, forbidden ones like your father used called `the soul transfer`." Tikal aimed this at Sonic causing the hedgehog to shrink slightly into his chair, the blue souls light dimmed slightly in sadness.

"It is this same book that Mephiles discovered and learned magic from; he stole it from the library eight years ago when we were all just children. He learnt the spells and wanted an apprentice, Sonics father fit perfectly." Tikal continued as her gloved hand ran smoothly over the ancient cover as if it was something to be honoured, which many in the room didn't understand since it seemed to them that the book was evil.

Sonic shuddered physically as he remembered the final battle at his old holiday home in Apotos, the words that Mephiles had spoken.

"**Your father was my student and I was his teacher. Every time he went to the forest in the middle of the night he was actually training to become a dark magic wielder like me. I taught him everything..."**

"This book does indeed hold all the forbidden spells, but it also holds the most powerful ones, such as summoning and sealing spells," Tikal broke off Sonics memory as she continued to explain. "However there is a riddle."

Everyone in the room was tense with anticipation. Knuckles was leaning forward too filled with anticipation to lay back. All eyes were on Tikal as they waited. Tikals' eyes never left the book.

"The echidnas, our great great ancestors that were the champions of magic, found a spell that was so strong and so evil that they tore the pages from this very book and scattered them across the globe." Tikal spoke with strength and everyone in the room was mesmerised.

"That spell, if used opens up hell and drags the person you choose into its abyss, never to walk this world again. That is the way of the spell...either way it opens hell." Tikal opened her eyes to look at the stunned expressions of her companions, all trying to take this in.

"Are you saying...that the pages of this spell are scattered around the world. Are you saying that this is the only spell to banish Mephiles once and for all?" Shadow piped up, unable to bear the silence any longer.

"Yes, but it is a very complicated spell, from what I have learned from history is that the spell only works at a certain time and only once. Once the spell is used it disappears from existence with out a trace." Tikal nodded in agreement.

"Wait hold the phone a minute, I just realised something! If this spell can only be used once then how did your ancestors know it was so strong that they had to scatter its pages?" Sonic exclaimed, everyone looked astonished at this realisation and turned to Tikal for answers.

"The spell is almost alive...it takes the life of the person you choose and sends it to hell, it is only satisfied when the chosen is dead. My ancestors were around when Dark Gaia first existed and they tried to send it to hell with this same spell. However it did not destroy it, it only slept in hell. That is why they know its power, that is why the spell still exists, it never took a life for Gaia is still alive sleeping deep in hell beneath us."

All were dumb folded by the explanations of forbidden spells, dark magic and the Book of Moon that came from Tikal so fluently you would have thought she was alive at the time it was made. All remained silent as they tried to take it all in.

"AH MY HEAD HURTS!" knuckles suddenly broke the tension and everyone, apart from Shadow, started laughing. Shadow was too deep in thought as he processed all this new information like a computer, a frown plastered on his face.

"You say the pages are scattered, where are they?" Shadow said in a frosty, serious tone that had everyone else in the room fall silent immediately, Shadows voice really did hold power over them.

Tikal suddenly opened up the book and Knuckles and Rouge managed to get glimpses of the contents of the other pages by delicate diagrams and words inked into the page with an ancient language.

"My ancestors only left one clue..." Tikal said quietly as she skimmed through the pages with a speed that showed she had skill with books. Sonic had risen from his warm comfy seat and aroused Shadow from his so that they could have a closer look.

It was when Tikal reached a section nearly half way through the book where the page numbers suddenly changed from 150 to 158 that they knew they were at the right part. It seemed seven pages were missing.

"My ancestors would never make the clue easy to find, but the technique has been passed down from generation to generation, including me." With that she began chanting in that unknown language that the gang of four were getting familiar with, the two pages visible went completely blank before the glowing silver thread around the black book cover suddenly came undone and magically left the book to sink into the blank pages as if it were ink. The silver ink formed words, then sentences as if it was being wrote down by a quill. Everyone watched in awe and interest as what was once secret was being revealed. However it was in another language.

"It says:  
One within the distant sands,

One beneath the thickest ice.

One where all knowledge stands,

One where only history will suffice.

One deep in the darkest cave,

One hidden within the stone flower.

And the final one you have to save

is in the tallest metal tower." Tikal translated and stared in puzzlement.

"Great, more riddles!" Knuckles burst out with a huff before turning to Rouge on the other side of Tikal, the bat had been strangely silent for the entire time Tikal had been there.

Tikal had asked for a piece of paper and ink, which Sonic arose to get since it was his house. He came back with a notepad and a black biro which Tikal just stared at. Sonic looked confused before realising that she lived in the swamp and they probably didn't have pens there. Chuckling he showed Tikal how to use it, Rouge just sat there staring into space as everything that was happening around her was a blur.

"Rouge?" knuckles questioned with concern, his hand passing over Tikal to touch his fiancés hand.

Rouge snapped out of it and turned to Knuckles with troubled eyes; Knuckles could see it and got more concerned. She then turned her head to look at Shadow still standing in front of Tikal, but his focus was not on the echidna girl but on Rouge too, his crimson eyes soft with a worry that he tried to hide.

Tikal had finished writing down the translation in English so that they could remember it, although the handwriting was a little scruffy from the lack of experience with a pen.

"Extraordinary!" She had gushed with excitement, it was very different and much cleaner than the quill and ink she used back home.

"Ya did very well for using your first pen." Sonic laughed at the playful pout Tikal gave him before she turned to watch Shadow and Knuckles look with concern at Rouge. Tikal too had noticed her strange silence, last time she remembered Rouge was the one making cocky comments about Knuckles all the time. But now the bat was silent, lost in her own thoughts.

Silently, Tikal closed her eyes and used her magic to probe Rouges mind with her own, gently she forced her way through the bats strong mental barrier that she was unintentionally forming at the moment. She had to be gentle; she did not want to disturb the girl. Her magic immediately hit something that was at the front of Rouges mind at the moment, something fresh. She forced her magic to grasp the thought...which she immediately regretted.

As soon as she had grasped it a very fast white flash filled her own mind. Then sickly green eyes. An evil laugh which made her heart freeze. It was so quick it made her physically gasp and open her eyes in shock. Everyone turned to stare at Tikal who was recovering form the shock.

_What was that!_ Her thoughts screamed as she turned to her right to make eye contact with Rouges own blue eyes._ Something tells me Rouge has a gift that not even she knows about..._


	4. Blaze and Silver join the group

Blaze and Silver join the group

"THIS IS OUTRAGOUS!" Mephiles roared and the walls of the spirit temple shook as debris fell from the ceiling in puffs of dust.

Scourge yawned as he lounged on the altar that once housed the crystal key, his arrogant nature showing wonders as his red sunglasses hid his evil blue eyes. He held a piece of the crystal key in his hand, it was transparent and lifeless as he continued to toss and catch it casually. Mephiles was starting to get annoyed at him.

"Hey come on mate, it isn't exactly my fault you're...bodiless." Scourge shrugged with a smirk and continued to toss the crystal piece.

"I know that you imbecile! My body is, at the moment, within that giant dank cellar of the traitor's old house. Torn to shreds by mirror shards may I add!" Mephiles continued his rage as he stared at transparent hands, his own hands. Without a body he could do nothing, not even use his powers. On top of that he had no body to return to.

**Everything then went deadly still. No one dared to breathe as all the mirror shards suddenly froze in midair. There was no wind, no movement...no sound. Tikal's ocean blue eyes were fixed on Mephiles' revolting green ones...as she thrust her staff to the ground. Blue sparks flew into the air around her as the shards suddenly zoomed towards Mephiles. **

**Mephiles eyes went wide as he continued to struggle. But it was too late. The sickening sound of piercing flesh filled the air as every single deadly mirror shard shot into Mephiles. There was no scream...just a last breath and deadly silence.**

Mephiles eyes filled with burning anger and he clenched his transparent fists tightly, a growl erupting in his throat. How could this happen? Killed by a girl!

"Come on now don't get ya knickers in a twist." Scourge smirked cockily as he sat up on top of the altar, his sunglasses now resting on his head revealing his cold blue eyes. Mephiles narrowed his eyes at the sarcastic comment, was there a rule somewhere that you weren't allowed to murder your rescuer? But then again...when had Mephiles abided by the rules.

XXXX

"Silver we just got a call from Son-Please don't tell me you're eating the chocolate cake we were meant to save for later." Blaze palm smacked her forehead as she sat in her beloved black leather chair, after much persuasion from Silver she had had laser treatment and no longer needed her red spectacles. Which meant she could palm smack her forehead without hitting her glasses.

Silver froze, the piece of chocolate cake shedding crumbs as the piece froze midway to his mouth. His eyes widened before he smiled sheepishly and once again avoided another UFP, which Silver came up with for `Unidentified Flying Plate` which was commonly coming his way when the feline got angry. Silver had insisted on getting plastic plates because of this, since all the china ones they had got smashed from Blaze throwing them.

The plastic plate that had missed soared across her office and smacked the glass tank on the opposite side of the room. Silver immediately dropped the piece of cake back onto his plate and ran to check on his companion inside.

Putting his hand in he gently dragged out a black and brown tarantula which obediently stayed in his hands and looked up at him with expectant eyes. Silver smiled at her, he had found her in a draw whilst his soul had separated and possessed her in the old GUN plane at the beginning of their huge adventure. The tarantula would have died if it weren't for him. She had helped immensely in saving Sonic and the others later on when they were at that strange old house in Apotos. He had decided to call her Missy; it seemed to fit her personality. Missy was the first ever animal to welcome Silvers' soul, all the others he had possessed in the past had fought violently against his soul and fought for control. But not Missy, in fact she had grown rather attached to Silver and Silver to her. She was very intelligent and would communicate to Silver via mind link when his soul was inside her. They had become an incredible team.

Missy ate anything, not just flies which he had also discovered in Apotos when she had happily eaten fish at Pearls house and kept pestering for more like a pet cat.

Silver signalled with a finger to his shoulder, which Missy swiftly ran up to and settled comfortably there in her spot. When he returned to his plate he took a small chunk of chocolate cake and offered it to the tarantula settled on his shoulder, her large black eyes looked at Silver for reassurance which he nodded to; she then happily took the chunk in her first two front legs and nibbled away.

"Pack up and get ready, we are visiting Sonic. Apparently he needs us." Blaze began again, now that she was the head of the newspaper company she didn't need to worry too much about getting stories in by a deadline, thanks to the GUN commander who had fired their old strict boss as a reward for the evidence for Shadow.

"Who will look after the company while we're gone though?" Silver asked quietly, his naive nature made Blaze roll her topaz eyes at him.

"I will get my assistant to do that." Blaze said matter-of-factly as she packed a briefcase with writing materials, you never know what you will need.

Silver growled and whispered something inaudible as he put his camera around his neck, Missy looking at him worriedly as she dodged the cameras dark blue neck strap. Silver wouldn't admit it, but he hated her assistant.

"I want my assistant up here pronto." Blaze ordered over the intercom on her desk and Silver felt himself bristle with deep hate. He really hated the guy.

Blaze was now almost ready; a purple coat with white fur trimmings on the hood and sleeves was zipped up tightly showing off her curves. In Silvers eyes she would always be the prettiest girl he had ever met. And what made his insides burn like molten lava was that her assistant also felt the same way.

Silver was in a light blue jacket with the same colour earmuffs covering his delicate ears, he signalled with his finger to his chest pocket which Missy obediently slid into. Blazes assistant hated the spider and always attempted to squish her. He was a horrible person when Blaze was not around...in a way he bullied Silver. But Silver could never tell, since he had been blackmailed that if he ever told Blaze what he was really like he would kill Missy. His own topaz eyes drifted to his chest pocket to see Missy looking up at him with sympathetic black eyes, she always seemed to sense these things.

A knock made his heart burn. _Speak of the devil_, Silver thought grimly as Blaze answered with an `enter`. The door creaked open to reveal a green bird. A hawk to be exact.

"Jet, I am going away on leave for a while, use my training to run the company well. I do not know when we will be back."

"_We?" _Jet asked innocently, looking around the room as if no one else was there, even though Silver was literally right next to him. Silver seethed and bit his tongue to refrain himself from saying anything, Missy's life was on the line.

"Yes, me and Silver." She motioned towards Silver; she hadn't noticed the way Jet had acted since she was busy clipping up her briefcase.

"Oh, yes, right." Jet said politely, even though he was actually looking at Silver scornfully, Silver returned the dirty look with a glare. He never acted like this, but he seriously loathed the guy. Blaze hadn't noticed that either since she was checking if she had forgotten anything.

"Well, we will be going. Take care of the company." Blazes words had the sense of finality to them meaning the conversation was over. Silver sighed in relief inside as Blaze left the office first, tail swishing slowly behind her showing she was calm.

Silver watched her go before turning back to the git of a hawk standing in the office. He felt like pounding the guy there and then as he noticed that the filthy bird was eyeing up her backside, eyes still lingering where it once was. Silver growled at him and Jet laughed mockingly back at him.

"What's the matter hedgie, Jealous?" Jet smiled evilly at what he classed as a weak male. Jet was muscularly, Silver was not. Jet was not afraid to flirt with the girl he liked, Silver was. Jet was cool, Silver was naive. Weak, shy and naive were all the things Jet classed as weak...why would Blaze choose someone like him over himself.

Silver bit back what he wanted to say and ignored the laughter as he left the office, the door shutting a bit more firmly than he intended. He leaned against the door, Missy looking up from his light blue pocket, she too hated the person Silver called `the green chicken`.

"I'm not jealous of a stuck up prick like you." Silver muttered with a grin as he left to follow Blaze who was waiting down the corridor at the lift. He maybe naive, but even he has a dark side.

XXXX

"Wow..." Was all Sonic could say as they entered what was once the old palace looking interior of the living room of the GUN plane. The plane wasn't flying at the moment and was just standing proudly on the ground.

The outside of the plane was sparkling clean with a yellow and blue paint job just like the Tornado. Rusty screws had been replaced for brand new ones, the whole thing had been upgraded and knowing Tails he would have added some cool stuff to the structure. The one thing that Sonic loved the most though was that Tails had created an automatic pilot system, since Tails had fallen asleep on their first ever trip on the plane. That was a nightmare he wished he could forget.

Instead of the royal looking, firm red sofas that were once nailed to the floor there were now six single sofas in the centre of the room in a circle facing the middle. Tails had colour coded them: a blue one for Sonic, black one for Shadow, light blue one for Rouge, red one for Knuckles, grey for Silver and finally purple for Blaze. A glass circular table lie in the very centre of them.

Sonic whistled in approval at the modern style, his eyes glanced up to see that the crystal light shades had been replaced with metal ones and the bulbs replaced for brighter ones. The floor had a yellow carpet instead of the red one before and the walls were painted blue, but what really caught his eye was the ceiling. Tails had painted it black and with glowing white paint had painted realistic specks for stars so that when the light dimmed the stars would glow.

"I know how much you like star gazing...do you like the touch?" Tails asked nervously, his tails flicking away unconsciously. Shadow had overheard the private conversation and stored this knowledge away for later.

"I love it buddy! Great job with this old plane, it looks as good as new." Sonic replied with a genuine smile as he ruffled up his little brothers' hair, Tails was always so considerate to him.

When he looked around he realised that everyone else was doing the same thing which was examining and admiring the room.

"I preferred it when it was red," Shadow stated, making Sonic smile because he knew that was Shadows favourite colour. "But it still looks great."

Shadow had wondered over to where loads of chest of drawers had once stood side by side. There was only two now. He hesitantly opened up the drawers, afraid he will find the dreaded tarantula still hidden inside. When he found nothing he almost physically sighed in relief. Rouge had come up behind him and was trying to hold in her laughter.

There was a sudden knock on the door and everyone froze for a second. The door knob turned and the door opened to reveal none other than Blaze and Silver. Silver looking extremely annoyed and closed off for some reason.

Tikal had been given an orange been bag seat since Tails didn't expect her, a bean bag she sat on quietly as she admired his work from her spot. She also looked up at the two new arrivals.

Silver peered down into his chest pocket again to check on Missy, she was sitting in there comfortably not causing any trouble. She did however peer over the rim of the pocket to see Shadow wondering around the room; _oh no it's the black and red giant that had kept me shut up in the drawer. I better stay hidden for a while_, Missy thought as she slunk back inside.

"Well everyone's here so I think we should get started." Sonic suggested as all sat in their designated seats, Tikals' bean bag leaning against Knuckles' chair and being lucky that her head didn't hit the side of the glass table.

Whilst Tikal explained the Book of Moon to all the new ones in the room Shadow who was in his seat next to Sonic slowly trailed his hand over the arm of Sonics chair to rest his gloved hand on Sonics own. Not expecting this Sonic jumped slightly. But when he realised it was only Shadow he smiled and intertwined his own fingers with his partners. Tails, who was sitting on the other arm of Sonics chair pretended not to notice.

Suddenly Shadow got a serious and fast headache, he withdrew his hand quickly making Sonic look at him in surprise as he put it to his forehead and applied pressure. That was so sudden that the pain was almost unbearable. He suddenly had the strangest sensation come over him, like his mind wasn't his own. He supposed it was the pain causing him this trouble. Everyone else around him felt blurred out, almost nonexistent as their voices seemed to escape the grasp of his ears.

"So:

One within the distant sands,

One beneath the thickest ice.

One where all knowledge stands,

One where only history will suffice.

One deep in the darkest cave,

One hidden within the stone flower.

And the final one you have to save

is in the tallest metal tower." Blaze reminded herself aloud as she stored away everything Tikal had told her with interest. A nod of affirmative confirmed her.

Sonic was too distracted by Shadows strange behaviour to give a damn about anything else. With a hand he was shaking Shadows shoulder but Shadows' hand remained over his eyes as if the light hurt them.

"So we need these pages and have to cast the spell at a certain time. But what time is that?" Silver asked from his seat, saying the first thing since he had arrived. He just needed some time to rid his thoughts of Jet.

"Luckily for us, we have until the beginning of December, the spell can only be cast when it is a full moon and Allmins comet bursts through our orbit. The comet releases magical energies in the people that wield it. Combined with a full moon gives maximum magic power, which is what we need for the spell. This time happens only every fifty years, it is a rare occurrence." Tikal explained and everyone listened intently, all except Shadow who still seemed out of it.

Shadow withdrew his hand from his eyes, his ruby eyes looking confused and pained as the headache seemed to subside. Maybe he should get the GUN scientists to check it out. It certainly wasn't natural for the Ultimate life-form to get headaches.

"You ok?" Sonic asked uncertainly leaning over to see Shadows slightly glazed over eyes, his own emerald ones swimming in concern.

"Fine." Shadow replied bluntly, talking made it feel worse so he said as little as possible.

XXXX

"Oh, is that what they are up to." Mephiles cooed darkly over the mirror as Scourge looked at him as if he was a maniac. Mephiles' ghostly hands tried to grasp the mirror, but they slipped through it as if it were water. The image of the Sonic crew all sitting in the plane talking could be seen.

"Am I missing something here?" Scourge mocked with another one of his signature evil smirks.

"I have read the Book of Moon," Mephiles stated in a low tone as his eyes focused on the black book the Forest Guide was holding. "I know about this...missing spell. They plan to send me to hell do they? Well...if only they new the other effects of the spell." This was followed by evil laughter as Scourge still looked at him with confusion.

"You can't exactly laugh since you literally have nothing to defend yourself with." Scourge sniggered as you could almost actually hear Mephiles' bubble pop.

**END OF CHAPTER**

**Start off, I don't even think JetxBlaze even exists and ****I **_**am glad it doesn't**_**. I hate the pair; Jet is just perfect for the character. I think I did rather well with Silvers jealously ;) **

**PLEASE REVIEW...I LOVE REVIEWS. I am getting hardly any, apart from `Soniccouplelover` who I thank for reading my last story and this one too...is it because I hadn't updated in a long time? If this is the case then I am sorry**


	5. Memories

Memories

After long conversations and catch up sessions the crew decided it was finally time to take flight. Tails happily went away to start up the plane, the flashing buttons and different shaped handles all ready to function and test their first flight as a new plane. This was test flight, they weren't actually going anywhere of importance. Sonic and the others fastened their seat belts which Tails had made for their chairs personally as they felt the rumble of the engine starting.

Sonic realised it was only yesterday morning when they had arrived back in Soleanna in this very plane, it had only taken a day for Tails to paint and make all these adjustments. Tails really was a talented kid. But it also meant he didn't have a chance to settle down.

Sonic sighed as he looked out of the window closest to him to see clear blue skies, it was another frosty morning and the trees were now practically bare of any leaves at all. He was almost angry that he hadn't had time to settle down a bit before going on another mission to save the world, angry he couldn't spend some alone time with only Shadow to keep him company. He sighed again feeling a little depressed but let it slide. He would just have to wait.

"Alright everyone, it is now safe to leave your seats." Tails voice boomed over the speaker and people immediately took of their seat belts and wondered to the windows to peer at the world below, all except Blaze who seemed to keep her distance form the window. Shadow was beginning to ponder on the fact she might be afraid of heights.

Shadow also watched Sonic from his seat sharing a window with Silver to look below them; it made him smile because of the irony. When they had first flown on this plane that same window was the same one Rouge fell through in the storm when she had a shot wing. Even though he was disabled Sonic had managed to grab her hand and save her.

**Rouges chair hit the wall propelling her forwards. Another window smashed as she was thrown through screaming and started falling towards the waves below.**

**Sonics face went from afraid to determined as he saw one of his friends in need, he reached out his hand as his body fell towards the shattered window. Lightning flashed through the darkness as Sonic managed to grab Rouges wrist just in time. Sonic squinted through the treacherous winds as he grabbed the edge of the window with his other hand to stop them falling. He cried out in pain as his hand clutched around a sharp piece of glass still stuck in the window frame, its razor edge easily cutting his glove and piercing his flesh. Crimson blood trickled down the metal frame and dripped into the ocean below.**

"**Don't let go." Rouge begged as she realised that Sonic had stopped her plunging to her death and stared at him with pleading eyes.**

"**I-I w-won't!" Sonic gasped from the pain in his hand as he shut his eyes tight against the heavy rain and the blustery winds, his spikes flying around madly as his eyes watered. **

Sonic definitely remembered this was the window, in fact where the glass had pierced his hand a scar remained. It would always be edged into his mind forever. Sonic saw the memory flash through his mind as he stared at the gloved hand that hid the scar with sorrow.

A hand landed on his shoulder. He jumped and turned to come face to face with Rouge, pity in her face. The look in her eyes said it all.

"Don't worry Hun, try to forget." She whispered reassuringly and Shadow frowned realising that both Sonic and Rouge were both remembering the same thing as him.

"This plane holds too many bad memories." Shadow muttered, crossing his arms in frustration as he did so.

Blaze, who was sitting opposite him, used her delicate cat hearing to make out the mutter, and her eyes closed as she also remembered bad times on this very plane.

"**HELP!" Blaze screamed as the unbolted wooden crates in the inescapable cargo unit kept sliding towards her, the plane being turned onto its side also affecting them.**

**Silver had managed to get used to having two legs again and growled as he used his telekinesis to hold all the crates back against the furthest wall, sweat dripping from his brow at over exerting himself after just using his soul transfer technique. Blaze had the flame still in her hand as there was still no power on board the plane after it had been struck by lightning, they were lucky the plane didn't explode!**

"**Blaze...I can't..." Silver struggled to speak as his powers were pushed to there limit as the weight of the crates started to get the better of him. They slowly started to slide towards them as dust flew into the air making it choke the two.**

Blaze shuddered involuntarily as the memories flooded back. If it weren't for Silver...she would have been killed.

As Silver gazed through the glass window watching condensation trickle down he also remembered something...something that had terrified him on that fatal day when he had met Missy for the first time**.**

**Still feeling uncertain he just let her continue as she crawled over another grate that let light shine into the vent showing the dust particles that floated in the air around them. She took a peek with her eight, black, beady eyes through the holes of the grate, made a mental note of the corridor and continued down the air vent tunnel, this time taking a left turn at the next corner.**

**Now Silver could hear the rain pounding on the metal wall outside, they were near the outer walls of the plane. Thunder boomed around them as it echoed down the smooth steel walls of the tunnels making it vibrate and making her sometimes lose her balance. **

**Then everything went deadly quiet. The only sound was the rain pounding on the plane. The spider froze as she sensed something. Amidst the darkness that even she could not see through something stirred. Silver also froze feeling her sudden change, paralyzed inside her mind as the two looked through the same eyes into the deep darkness.**

**Suddenly, two dangerous red eyes appeared.**

Silver snapped his eyes open, not realising he had closed them. Those red eyes had belonged to a rabid rat.

**The red eyes blinked and the tarantula did not dare move. The eyes were staring...waiting**_**. What do we do now?**_** Silver asked nervously as he kept his eyes on the red orbs staring right at them. Suddenly a hungry growl filled the air. The tarantula held firm not wanting to move until the time was right. The eyes grew bigger. Fangs slowly dripped slobber. A large tail came into view. A large brown rat was stalking towards them.**

**The rat was enormous! To Silver it looked like a giant bear, but of course he was a spider so the small rat looked ten times its normal size. The slobber fell with sickening plops onto the floor. Its revolting breath smelt of dead animals. Its red eyes filled with murderous and hungry intent. **

Silver forced himself away form the window with a shiver, causing Sonic to look at him with worry. Silvers eyes felt watery as he held the horrid memory down, bottled it up. No one else could ever understand the feeling of being so small and...hunted.

A small squeak awoke him from within himself, he looked down into his light blue chest pocket to see missy looking up at him with concern with her black and brown furred legs twitching showing her animal instinct to move and reassure her beloved partner. But Silver just smiled, this telling her to stay put.

Shadow jumped visibly; luckily Blaze was too preoccupied with watching Silver to notice. _That wasn't what I thought it was, was it! That damned spider haunts me even now! _Shadow thought with panic as he heard the squeak, trying to shield away his emotions with his famous emotionless mask. He remembered when he had let his fear slip. Only slightly.

**He had just finished the first set of drawers with a conclusion of nothing and was opening the first drawer on the second. The drawer was higher than he was meaning he could not actually see inside the drawer, he had to reach over on tiptoe to scurry around to find something. His gloved hand suddenly touched something that seemed to be furry. He froze.**

"**What's the matter!" Rouge sounded alarmed as she saw the shocked look on Shadows face.**

**Frozen to the spot as he felt the furry thing move around in the drawer and shuddered as it crawled over his hand, Shadow just slowly turned his head to Rouge with a pale face.**

"**I hope you like spiders?" Shadow asked with a slightly frightened tone, afraid to move his hand out in case of bringing the creature with it. **

"**I'm ok with them, I think they are cute." Rouge answered as she relaxed and then cocked an eyebrow as she questioned. "Why?"**

"**Because, judging by its size and texture, there is a tarantula in this drawer." Shadow physically shuddered as he felt the creatures legs crawl over the bare skin above his glove lining.**

**Rouges eyes widened before she suddenly started smirking at him.**

"**Don't tell me, the ultimate life-form is afraid of spiders." It was more of a statement rather than a question. It was confirmed when he shuddered again still frozen to the spot, all traces of exhaustion gone.**

**Rouge couldn't help but laugh at her usually fearless and ferocious friend who was squirming at the feel of a spider**.

Shadow sighed and wiped his forehead with his gloved hand. He really hated that memory. Every single person in the room seemed to hold a dreadful memory, every single person thinking of their individual ones at this very moment.

"Come on guys! I can see everyone is thinking of bad times! Think of the goods ones we have had here too." Rouge shouted firmly, making every head turn to look at each other with pained filled eyes for a second. Rouge remembered hers first.

"**It looks like we will be landing in a minute, we are over the beach," Rouge said excitedly. "Time for a tan!"**

"**No you don't we still have our mission to do," Shadow smirked at Rouges crestfallen face. "...Maybe I will allow you afterwards."**

**Rouge squealed at the last part and glomped him. Sonic fell into fits of laughter as Shadow tried to pry the white bat off and snarled small, yet meaningless threats. Knuckles just stood there noticing that Shadow was not really trying but was just playing along like friends would; he didn't get angry as he watched the unusual playful scene with Shadow.**

Hearing his fiancé Knuckles did not really have a bad memory, but he had a good one. He smiled as he remembered when their relationship really started to begin.

**Rouges eyes were shut so tightly they could tear as the water that she expected to hit her never came. Her eyes shot open at feeling a pair of arms embrace her and when she looked up it was someone she didn't expect.**

"**KNUCKLES!" She cried with joy as she held him tighter.**

Thinking of Rouges words Blaze was next, she started to giggle at remembering hers.

**Blaze, who had had enough of the dopey Silver grabbed his shoulders and started shaking him violently now screaming his name in annoyance.**

**Like a machine with wires his soul attached itself back inside his body fully making him function, his dazed eyes became alert and his muscles moved as he sat up clutching his head in pain. Blaze let go of his shoulders, afraid that she had actually hurt him. But when he smiled and she realised it was not her she started shaking his shoulders again even more viciously.**

"**WHY ARE YOU SMILING?" She screamed. "YOU HAD ME WORRIED SICK!" **

"Oh yeah, I remember mine!" She laughed as Silver gave her cold looks.

"If you are remembering what I think you are, it wasn't exactly _my _happiest memory." Silver couldn't help but smile; almost as if it had triggered it Blazes' laugh reminded him of when he had found Missy. That was probably his happiest memory.

**The tarantula's soul that had been pushed into the darkest crevices of her own mind protested as her body was too weak for the rough treatment. Silver apologised to her with his thoughts and she calmed down. The soul transferring technique that Silver had developed not only pushed his soul into another's body, but also merged his mind with his hosts as well allowing him to actually communicate with his host. **

**Although he could only do the soul transfer with small animals most of his other hosts in the past had fought back relentlessly, all trying to pry his soul away. However the female tarantula was not fighting back at all, in fact she was cooperating with him. **_**Maybe she is too weak to protest,**_** Silver thought in pity as he forced himself to get used to walking with eight legs. **

**He suddenly felt a gentle tug at the back of his mind, the tarantula was asking for control. Silver hesitantly accepted and let his own soul be pushed into the darkness of her mind. The tarantula was still at first before expertly climbing the side of the draw with her legs and climbing into the light of the room. The room was empty but there were sounds of footsteps coming.**

_**Be careful, if they spot you goodness knows what will happen**_**, Silver told her and strangely enough, as if she understood, she quickly scaled down the drawers, avoiding the golden handles that looked so large to Silver and hid underneath the closest red sofa. Being a spider was odd to Silver, but what was even odder was that the spider actually understood him; most of his hosts ignored him completely or didn't understand.**

A warm, tingly feeling replaced the horrible cold depression as his heart leapt at the memory; Missy in his pocket could sense his sudden surge of happiness and relaxed inside.

Last of all was Sonic and Shadow, but the two found it difficult finding any good memories from this plane deep within their souls. Suddenly...almost as if it was shown to them...both hedgehogs felt a memory resurface. Sonic blushed, and slowly turned his head to meet Shadows eyes. Rubies met emeralds, mind met mind. The same memory danced inside both of their heads.

"**Don't worry." Shadow whispered gently as he approached the bath again and Sonic immediately started to panic. "I am here, nothing will happen."**

**Sonic felt his cheeks blush again at Shadows words but his eyes were fixed on the water that was now below him. Shadow very slowly began to lower him down into the bath. Sonic dug his bare fingers into Shadows head quills causing Shadow to shudder at being touched there.**

"**WAIT! NO!" Sonic slammed his eyes shut tight as he felt the water flow over his not working legs. Then he felt the warm water at his waist. He started to panic as it rose up to his shoulders.**

**Shadow was uttering words of reassurance the entire time as he felt Sonic trembling involuntarily in his arms, his trembling getting worse the more he lowered him down into the water. Sonic felt the water stop rising and slowly cracked an eye open to see that he was fully in the water, the water at the base of his neck and flowing smoothly through his head quills. Sonic opened his eyes fully as he felt Shadows arm disappear from under him and heard the small splash as he raised it from the water.**

"**You won't leave?" Sonic asked shakily, mentally hitting himself for being so pathetic and weak ever since he became disabled, he just wanted to be his normal fearless self again.**

**Shadow simply shook his head and sat down on a wooden chair next to the bath as he watched Sonic. Sonic was very stiff and tense, anyone could see that he was completely rigid as he looked in fear at the water surrounding him. His ears were pressed against his head showing that he was very nervous as the water lapped against the white bath walls.**

In the real world Sonic blushed harder; his face so red you would have thought someone had painted red ink on his cheeks, his eyes were tightly shut. Why had he been such a coward? And around Shadow no less!

A firm, yet gentle grip was suddenly present on his peach arm. Slowly, he turned his head. Once again ruby met emerald, but this was a bond filled with comfort. Sonics mouth upturned into a smile. Rouge cocked an eyebrow at the two, wondering what distant memory her words had awakened.

"**Are you alright?" Shadow asked with tiredness evident in his voice.**

"**Hmm." Sonic murmured a yes, too relaxed to bother. "You don't get this feeling when you are in the shower."**

**Shadow could not help but smile, luckily the steam stopped Sonic from seeing it. Shadow had admitted to himself long ago that he was not ashamed of being gay, he was not ashamed of what people would think and he was especially not ashamed of Sonic being the one he truly wanted.**

Shadow swore that someday, he would lose himself into the green of his lovers' eyes, lose himself in his smile...lose himself in his presence itself. They had experienced so much together, recent past and distant past. For the first time in a while he just relished in the feel of his counterparts lush peach fur beneath his finger tips. For the first time in an even longer time...he gave a genuine smile.

**xXEND OF CHAPTERXx**

**I adore this chapter, it's the way I made everyone's memories sort of tie together in a string. I almost cried writing this, because I had memories of when I actually wrote all these memories as chapters form Sorrow on Wheels. I hope you liked it too.**


	6. Restless Dreams

**Ok guys, it starts getting good from this point onwards.**

Restless Dreams

The crescent moon had begun to rise over the sea, its beautiful lunar light swallowing the plane and the world around them. The bitter autumn breeze rolled over the ocean waves carrying their peaceful sound of lapping water with them as it blew out into the horizon. The plane was flying steadily as it flew its first test run.

Shadow sat in his black chair, eye lids closed hiding his gorgeous orbs from the rest of the world. The rest around him had repeated the strange riddle Tikal had told them over and over, trying to place in their minds where it would be. _Surely it must not be that difficult?_ Shadow thought half heartily, however he couldn't complain since his brain was having trouble formulating any places either.

"Well, I think I may know one," Blaze whispered into the silence, afraid if she talked too loud it would shatter like thin glass and make everyone jump. "I think...`the deepest ice` is Holoska."

"I am absolutely sure that `the distant sands` is Sharmar Hun, since I went there on a mission once. You never forget a place like that." Rouge followed with a seductive wink to Shadow as he sat there listening intently to his companions, his black ears pricked and ruby eyes now open and narrowed in concentration.

"Oh! I think `where only history will suffice` is a museum, but there are hundreds of museums in the wor-"  
"Chun-nan," Rouge interrupted Silver in a heart beat. "It is a small town, but houses the biggest museum on the planet, that is a good start Hun." Silver wasn't annoyed by her interruption, he was more fascinated at the knowledge she knew.

"Alright, there is only one thing for it." Shadow suddenly snarled out interrupting them all, their voices were causing him another searing headache, his own voice holding a strength that surpassed his years as he sat up in his chair with his hands clasped together in his lap. "We have to split up."

"NO!" Rouge suddenly piped up. "That's too dangerous Hun; Mephiles is out to kill Sonic! And I doubt he would care if he murdered you too. We have to st-

"Rouge...it is dangerous if we waste time and let this opportunity slip. You heard Tikal, this time only happens every fifty years. This is our last hope! If we all go to one place at a time it would take too long. We may have just about three months but the journeys, breaks and no doubt Mephiles' interruptions will run our time short." Shadow interrupted impatiently with a growl. He sounded like a guy who knew what he was doing...Rouge said no more.

"This is what I suggest," Shadow continued. "Me and Sonic will take Sharmar. If it is distant sands we will be the quickest in finding it. Blaze and Silver, you take Holoska. With Blazes fire skills it will also make it quicker and safer for you. Rouge and Knuckles will take Chun-nan. With their flying and gliding skills they will be quickest in the mountains and rocky terrain there."

Shadows decision of teams and their designated places made so much sense that no one dared to argue or resist, it really couldn't be done in a better way. Shadow had the makings of a great leader.

"This gives us three pages, leaving four which we haven't quite figured out yet. But we will cross that road when we come to it." Shadow sighed involuntarily as he sat back, rubbing sweat from his forehead with mental exhaustion. It felt as if time was speeding by, making him feel restless.

Sonic had left his blue chair at Shadows side to tell Tails about the places and which teams were going where.

"Alright everyone, our first destination is Sharmar." Tails' voice echoed around the room from the speakers with excitement, Sonic smiled as he entered the room again, no matter how intelligent Tails was he was still an eight year old child deep at heart. As he walked briskly into the room he took one more glance at the star ceiling, where the coming darkness from outside was already making the painted stars glow fantastically.

"I think I am going to hit the hay guys, see ya tomorrow." Sonic yawned as he slowly strode away to the door that led to the corridor with what felt like a hundred rooms. Shadow agreed sleep was what they all needed; they had a big day tomorrow.

Tails chose that moment to waltz in, everyone looking alarmed at the fact he was not steering the plane. He reassured them hurriedly that the auto pilot was on and everyone sighed in relief. They did not want a replay of last times chaos. The young fox yawned himself and stretched his arms tiredly making each individual fur stand on end, his two furry tails twitching with the stretch before he went through the door Sonic had recently gone through.

"Everyone's room has there name on it." Tails said sleepily as he dragged himself through the door.

Blaze noticed that Silver was dozing off cutely in his grey chair with his glorious yellow eyes barely able to stay open, his light blue jacket still covering his body and Missy sleeping in his chest pocket. She also chose that it was time to leave and gently forced Silver from his chair. He rubbed his eyes adorably and Blaze felt her heart warm up at the sight. This is what she liked about Silver, he wasn't like other males. She said her goodbyes as she helped Silver away. Knuckles and Rouge had also left and noticed they shared a room, which was perfectly alright with them.

Shadow decided he should crawl to bed as well and went through the automatic door to the room corridor. His hover skates clinked on the metal floors that were devoid of any dirt or dust, the walls had been cleaned and he could see his reflection. His perfect reflection stared back at him as he wondered down the corridors in search of his room, his ears once again pricked and alert with caution.

Passing Tails' room which was signalled by the fashionable handwriting, he continued to travel down the corridors. However, the pure silence was unnerving as he began to get suspicious. His own metal skates hitting the metal floor seemingly too loud in the deserted corridor. _Mephiles is out there...somewhere. I know him better than anyone. He will come when we least expect it. _Shadow thought mentally, his pricked ears swivelling in an attempt to catch even the slightest disturbance in the stillness.

Once again he looked to were his shadow should undoubtedly be. Once again he was met with an empty space. The only thing reassuring him he still existed was his own reflection staring back at him. Finally he stumbled upon his room, which was in fact Sonics room too. Grinning at the fox's consideration he gave a gentle knock. A stir of his partner filled his hearing as Sonic turned and groaned in his sleep.

Turning the golden handle he allowed himself in and shut the door carefully behind him. When he turned the room was all cream, peach or yellow. A giant king sized bed sat in the centre, the thick, lush blanket was a patch work quilt of gold material. Smiling as he saw Sonic sleeping on the left side of the bed facing away from him, he always slept on the left side.

As he undressed himself of his gloves and skates like Sonic had also done by looking at the clothing scattered all over the floor, he was thankful that the floor was soft peach carpet and not cold stone or metal tiles. Neatly putting his hover skates below his part of the bed and putting his gloves on his bedside cabinet he also grabbed Sonics red shoes and put them at his partners' side of the bed.

Once the gloves were on his lovers' bedside cabinet and he was satisfied, he sat down slowly on Sonics side admiring how peaceful Sonic looked during his sleep. Sonic snuggled into the huge pillows with delicate golden patterns embroidered on their cases with a hum of content.

Shadow outstretched his bare black and red arm out and as gentle as a feather ran his fingers through his lovers' soft blue quills, his fingers slightly massaging his head making Sonic purr happily in his dreams and smile.

His red eyes were locked on the beautiful sight of his sleeping lover enveloped in the luscious moonlight, his small and gentle breaths making his chest rise slowly. What ruined the moment though was that, in this position in the way of the moonlight, his shadow should be enveloping Sonic and protecting him instead of the moonlight. But his shadow wasn't there, he growled in annoyance, immediately regretting it when Sonics eyes fluttered slightly.

_Oh well done genius! Sonic was sleeping ever so peacefully until you ruined it_! His mind mentally palm smacked himself as Sonics sleep filled emerald eyes looked up at him in confusion.

"Shadow...what's wrong?" Sonic asked groggily, as his bare peach fists rubbed circles around his eyes. Shadows anger melted away as quickly as it had rushed to him at the sight. Guilt filled his thoughts at disturbing his lover though.

"Don't worry...go back to sleep." Shadow tried not to sound snappy and irritated, or tried not to growl. It worked, until Sonics eyes cleared properly enough to see the irritated face expression. Now wide awake Sonic sat up concerned, he knew that if Shadow had something on his mind he would bottle up until it burst and overflowed, whatever the thoughts were transforming into anger which he bit out at his friends with growls, snarls and nasty comments. In fact when Sonic thought about it, Shadow was acting pretty aggravated all day and when he attempted eye contact now Shadow avoided his gaze.

"Shadow, you know that I am Sonic the hedgehog, I maybe your lover but you also know that I am a male and fight for myself. I hate seeing you hurting from the inside...ya need to tell me what is on your mind." Sonic said firmly, knowing being soft to Shadow just made him worse.

Shadow sat on the edge of Sonics side of the bed in silence, still avoiding eye contact. He could feel the sharp glare of Sonics green eyes burning holes into his back until he couldn't take it any longer. Turning and growling unintentionally at Sonic who widened his eyes and moved back slightly.

"FINE! YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT'S WRONG? IT'S BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE A SHADOW! THERE ARE YOU HAPPY?" Shadow screamed as he shot up from the bed to stand and completely face Sonic who was shocked by the sudden shout, however it didn't last long. His usually soft emerald eyes suddenly went narrow and sharp.

"SORRY! I WAS JUST WORRIED ABOUT YA!" Sonic shouted back as he suddenly turned away from Shadow and lied down again, his mind too riled up and burning with anger to really sleep. He almost felt like crying which was uncharacteristic for him since his...disability stage, he had been his normal fearless self again after that stage.

A sickening silence fell over the room; the only sounds were both Shadows and Sonics heavy breathing from their little argument. Suddenly, which caused Sonic to give a gasp; he felt arms encircling his waist from behind. The grip firm yet gentle as calm breathing rolled down his neck. Sonic knew immediately that this was Shadows way of saying sorry, the black hedgehog hardly ever said the words...but he didn't have to.

"Why? Why is not having a shadow on your mind?" Sonic asked gently, putting his own bare hands over Shadows that were now connected at his stomach.

"Because...I don't feel whole, I don't feel like I am really here. When I see your shadow and realise I don't have mine I feel like I am a ghost of some sort...that I can see you but you cannot me." Shadow muttered into his blue neck fur. Sonic turned in the grasp so that he was now facing Shadow.

"Of course I can see you," Sonic whispered as he gently brushed the back of fingers against Shadows cheek. "I can touch ya too; you are here with us Shadow...try to force those thoughts away. Don't let Mephiles get the best of your mind." Sonics words were unusually knowledgeable and they comforted him enough to smile. Sonic nuzzled into the crock of Shadows neck and leaned his weight against him as comfort as he closed his eyes to sleep. Shadow, feeling his blue counterparts' body warmth, was soothed into a deep sleep. _Don't let Mephiles get the best of your mind..._

XXXX

The bright white flash. Revolting green eyes. Evil, menacing laughter. Rouge thrust herself out of bed, her body dripping in sweat and her short white hair clinging to her skin. Eyes so wide and filled with fear sharply looked around the room. They rested on Knuckles sleeping on her left, she preferred the right side. Her husband to be was sleeping soundly, giving loud snores.

"Not even a bomb would wake him up now." She thought aloud, her voice shaky as she got out of the blue king size bed trembling. The sheets were damp form her sweat. She needed to clear her mind. Her dark blue silk pyjamas clung to her sweaty body.

Wondering down the corridors as her bare feet clapped against the metal floor she headed towards the living room area. The lights were now completely off and all was dark, but being a bat had its advantages. Her black wings were spread slightly showing she was being cautious, she had come to fear the image of Mephiles plaguing her mind. Her steps echoed with unwanted sounds around the corridors, all the doors she passed held silence meaning everyone else must be deep in sleep. It was actually very cold and the sweat on her skin went stiff as she shivered, goose bumps developing on her fragile skin. She clutched the top of her arms tightly from the cold as the automatic doors opened with a swish. She froze.


	7. Tikals words

Tikals words

Silver and Blaze had separate rooms. Silver had taken off his jacket and put Missy on his bedside cabinet where she happily stayed and closed her eyes in a spider sleep. Silver had learned from Missy that spiders sleep standing so that in an emergency they just wake up quickly and run.

Silver sniggered as he sneakily took a chocolate biscuit which he had _borrowed _from Blazes biscuit tin back at the office from his jackets side pocket. He sat crossed legged in bed with the white blanket covering his legs and munched away with a smile like a child on his face, his eyes closed in bliss at the delicious taste.

He felt something tapping his chest hesitantly which made him open one eye to see Missy looking at him with puppy dog eyes;_ I never knew a tarantula could do that!_ He thought as Missy gave a cute little spider screech and tapped once more. Giving in he broke a spider size piece off and handed it to Missy who thanked him with a happy spider cry. She held it in her two front brown and black furry legs and nibbled away at her late night snack. Silver smiled as he finished his biscuit and went to bed. Now everyone was fast asleep...accept two people.

XXXX

She clutched the top of her arms tightly from the cold as the automatic doors opened with a swish and she froze. Rouges eyes widened. In the darkness of the living room, in Sonics blue chair, sat a green hedgehog with one leg over the other. An evil smirk on his face. She took a step back, a little frightened.

"Who are you?" Rouge demanded, her voice holding confidence her body didn't have.

XXXX

Shadow swatted with annoyance at a bright blue light hovering over his head. Eyes shot open as his hand wasn't hitting...whatever it was. Gasping he noticed it was Sonics father trying to awake him and making bell sounds of distress.

"What the..." Shadow asked sleepily.

The blue soul orb only flashed desperately in answer and went straight through the door, trying to lead him somewhere. It was then that he felt something was terribly wrong.

XXXX

"Tell me where ya goin next and I will leave ya alone, how does that sound?" The green hedgehog threatened as he advanced on the bat.

For every step the hedgehog took she took a step back. It was only when he got close enough to hit her that she shut her eyes and put her arms in the way as defence...nothing came. Her eyes shot open...but the green hedgehog was gone.

"There was nothing there," Rouge felt like she had had a heart attack as she turned to find Tikal in the doorway. "It is your powers showing you the future."

Rouge was gulping down air. Her heart beating so fast she thought it would burst. How could something like that feel so...real? Rouge shuddered and Tikal led her to her light blue chair to relax for a while. Rouge tugged a sleeve of her pyjama top from the fear still present in her mind.

"How long have you been having visions? A week, a month...a year?" Tikal became more desperate as she sat in Knuckles' red chair.

"I-I don't know. I think a-about over a month." Rouge stuttered, fearful of the ferocity of Tikals voice. "Am...I going insane?"

Tikals face softened in sympathy at seeing the tears build in her friends beautiful sapphire eyes twinkling in the moonlight pouring through the windows.

"You have a gift Rouge, you can choose to fear it or use it. Visions can be frightening, but you have been given the gift to see the past and to change something of the future by seeing it before hand," Tikal informed her softly. "You can also choose to tell or not to tell, but it is hurting you inside to hide the frightening things you have seen."

"When I touched that bone whistle, I saw-

" Mephiles...I know. I read your mind before and it was at the very front of your mind. The image haunts you." it was more of a statement rather than a question and Rouge hesitantly nodded, her wings folded in sadness.

Suddenly the blue souls light brightened up the room like a star and the automatic doors whooshed open to see an alert and concerned Shadow following suit. Rouge turned to Tikal horrified, she had brought him. Tikal nodded, knowing what she was thinking and stood up and left. Tikals footsteps faded as she entered the corridor with Sonics fathers' soul and the door shut behind her, leaving the room in tense silence.

"Rouge! Are you alright?" Shadow growled, his movements were rigid in worry and he was being very skittish as he looked around the room for danger.

"Don't worry...it's gone Hun." Rouge whimpered as she looked down, feeling the tears begin to overpower her and her heart sink deep into a black hole that wanted to swallow it. She couldn't look at Shadow like this.

"Rouge, you are my closest friend, in fact my first ever friend I have ever had. You can tell me anything." Shadows body relaxed a bit at hearing it was gone, but he wasn't going to leave until he was sure Rouge was safe.

Without looking up she patted Knuckles' red chair. Without hesitation he obeyed and sat next to her. Seeing her large bat ears drooped and wings folded made his heart clench. As he attempted to make eye contact Rouge avoided his gaze. _Funny...it is usually the other way around_, Shadow thought miserably as he gave up and just looked in front of him. In the corner of his eye he caught the glitter of a single tear slide down her hidden face and drop to the floor.

"Promise you won't tell anyone Hun." Rouge whispered, forbidding herself to look up.

"That depends," Shadow began; a hint of a growl to his voice. "If it endangers you or anyone else I may have to."

"Please, don't, for me." Rouges' voice seemed slightly angry and Shadow just couldn't refuse.

"Fine." Shadow answered gruffly, crossing his arms and sitting back in the red chair.

"I have been having...visions. Visions of the future, although they are very vague and even ...terrifying." Rouge had to wipe away the tears as they started to fall freely. "I'm frightened Shadow, I am petrified."

"What did you see?" Shadow asked gently, not wanting to be rough and hurt her more than she already was.

"A green hedgehog, sitting in Sonics chair. He was stalking towards me and he said ` Tell me where ya goin next and I will leave ya alone, how does that sound?` He had such an evil smirk." Rouge retold the events and Shadow just sat and listened. _I should really tell Sonic, he could know something. But I made a promise...and I am strong about my promises_, he told himself mentally remembering the promise he had made to Maria, the promise he still held.

"I won't tell." He assured her as for the first time she actually looked up into his face, face wet and eyes red and swollen from obvious tears. Her eyes held pure trust for Shadow.

"You should go back to bed; you are going to need a lot of rest." Shadow smiled as he helped her up with a hand and walked next to her down the corridor to her room. When they got there Rouge said goodnight and thanked him before closing the door. Shadow yawned loudly and trudged back to his own bed.

The wind outside had slightly picked up, the crescent moon now halfway through the sky signalling midnight. The ocean waves lapped a little more fiercely as the wind carried some clouds over covering the many twinkling diamonds of stars. It was going to be a long yet peaceful night.

**xXEND OF CHAPTERXx**

**Alright people! As from the next chapter the story begins to take shape and the adventure truly starts to roll on!**


	8. Sharmar

Sharmar

Sonic awoke gasping for breath; it was like an oven in the room! Sweat trickled mercilessly down his brow as Sonic practically panted like a dog. The sudden stuffy hot room waking him up fully.

"If you haven't guessed yet Faker, we have reached Sharmar." Shadow grinned sarcastically as the hero gave him a glare, but it was ineffective since Sonics head quills were all ruffled by sleep and it didn't match the expression. Shadow was leaning against the wall in the shade, arms crossed and looking much more cooler than his blue counterpart.

"You know I'm not a morning person, why do you have to make it worse?" Sonic cried out dramatically as he threw the pillow over his head and held it there, effectively blocking the extremely bright sunlight bursting through their window. Sunlight which was directly on him making him feel tens times hotter.

"Get up Faker...or I will throw you in the bath I have waiting for you." Shadows half lidded eyes combined with his evil smirk would remind anyone of a much softer Mephiles. Sonic bolted upright. Pillow flying across the room with the pure force behind it. Sonics face was as pale a sheet.

"You...wouldn't...dare!" Sonic growled threateningly and Shadow was actually considering what Knuckles had said about him rubbing off on the hero.

"Get up and I won't have to." Shadow shrugged.

Sonic gave a playful pout before swinging his legs off the side of the bed, his feet met the material of his shoes and he jumped slightly. He looked from the shoes to Shadow; _he is such a neat freak_, Sonic thought and shook his head. Easily slipping his red shiny shoes on and clipping up the golden buckles to just the right tightness he grabbed his gloves and quickly slipped them on as well. He was just about to walk out the door when Shadow held a hand out to stop him. Sonic looked at him in confusion.

"You are not planning on going out with your quills looking like an old broom are you Faker?...You would be an embarrassment."

Sonic blushed with a tinge of pink as he saw his messy reflection in the mirror staring back at him. He then scratched the back of his neck sheepishly with a small grin.

XXXX

"Good luck guys." Rouge called from the plane, Tails had let them off and had started the engine again. Sand flew through the air like snow and the two hedgehogs had to shield their eyes with the backs of their hands.

Rouge blew them a kiss farewell as the plane door shut and the plane began moving off. Sonic waved goodbye as he saw Tails' head sticking out of the pilot side window, wondering when the next time he would see any of them would be. Tails' next stop was Chun-nan where Rouge and Knuckles were to be dropped off. As Sonic watched them go the blue and yellow GUN plane was already a decreasing speck in the distance.

The sand continued to be carried by the blustery wind as the sun shone on them with its overly bight light. So bright that the sky almost looked white more than a clear blue. It was extremely humid and Shadow, being black furred, was already feeling dehydrated.

Tails had dropped them off on a small deserted piece of land that was only sand on a sand dune, however in front of them below the large sand dune they were currently standing on lay a beautiful city carved out of pure sand stone. The tropical green leaves of the plants swayed in the sand filled breeze as the distant sound of busy crowds could be heard form the city. The sand stone a pleasant yellow that was the most unique in the whole world.

"There it is...the city of Sharmar," Sonic spoke up. "I have been here before, along with most places in the world when I was a...well." Sonic didn't want to finish that sentence. Shadow looked at him weirdly and also noticed that Sonic was not coping well in the sun unprotected, his luxurious blue fur already clinging to his frame from sweat.

"Let's get movin before I bake." Sonic practically shouted, more of a distraction from where the current conversation was heading rather than wanting to actually get there. Shadow crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at Sonics failed attempt to sway him off track, he would just have to talk to him later. But he followed suit anyway, the sand already starting to get into his hover skates and clinging to his skin roughly because of the sweat. It felt extremely uncomfortable.

The entrance to the city was a spectacular large sand stone arch higher than a flat. Its stone had skilled carvings of a desert animal, the desert fox. Sonic remembered from his last visit that the people of Sharmar worshipped the desert fox and you should never say the desert fox in any horrible sentence, you should never go against or kill a desert fox...or you will be killed as revenge.

"Why would they put some filthy des-"

Shadow was interrupted by a hand slapping over his mouth very hard. He turned with wide red eyes to see Sonic looking around as if he was about to be murdered. Sonics ears were folded onto his head in worry as his eyes continued to dart around the crowd. It seemed he found what he was looking for since he had let his hand drop from Shadows face.

"Idiot! Don't say anything bad about desert foxes. The people here worship them!" Sonic whispered through gritted teeth, his eyes occasionally glancing around encase someone had actually heard what his lover was about to say. Shadow realised what he was on about and nodded his head. It seemed Sonic knew more about this place so he should be the one asking for advice...which felt odd to be honest.

"Come on." Sonic ordered as he began to walk at a pleasant pace down the yellow sand stone streets. The city was beautiful, no one could deny it. Shadow looked in awe above his head to see large yellow sand stone bridges above his head, the pillars holding it up once again had the carvings of the desert fox.

People were intelligently staying in the shade provided by the stone bridges above them as they worked. Some were weaving dried reeds to create baskets; some were knitting to make exquisite carpets which some where hung over a wooden rail for passerby's to view and buy, all of the small stalls were outside. However if you looked beyond them you could see shops and restaurants actually within sand stone buildings, doors actually airy archways just like the main entrance but just a lot smaller.

As they pressed on, the crowds became more large and noisy and more shops and food places were actually in buildings. Shadow had figured out that the streets closest to the edge of the city were poor and as they continued further into the centre they went up in class. Sonic had mentioned to him that at the very centre of the city was the royal palace since the centre was classed as the richest and holy.

Sonic led him through crowds of many people in strange clothing; all the girls were wearing scarves around their heads to protect them from the sun. They were now heading into the second class border after what felt like hours and Shadow could already tell the difference. The beautiful yellow sand stone was cleaner here and the pillars holding the bridges above them were more fashionably designed, some of the pillars were not pillars at all but giant sand stone statues of desert foxes holding the bridge above on top of their heads.

Shadow had to watch where he was going now since the path was much narrower and was surrounded by small sparkling pools of water.

More pots of plants were situated in places making the place feel fresher. Young children were playing in the small, square, ankle high waters of the pools as their parents were standing on a yellow sand stone bridge which helped people to cross some of the pools without getting wet. There were three sides to the street, separated by the square pools of aqua and the bridges crossing them. One path in the middle, one on their left and one on their right. The right and left streets held colourful dancers with their flowing dresses, a small band of musical instruments originating from the country giving them a beat to dance to and just small crowds hovering over items for sale and chatting happily. The middle path being the one the two hedgehogs were walking down.

It seemed Sonic was leading him to somewhere in particular as they seemed to continue onwards through the crowds. Shadow looked up at the sun piercing the sky and watched some amazing blue birds flying under the bridges above them, the rare birds squawking as he watched an old man with a grey beard hold his arm out for the birds to land. He fed them some berries and they took flight again, it was obvious the smiling old man was their owner. The birds were spectacular to look at.

Shadow also noticed that there were rarely doors or windows, the weather being way too hot for the building structures to hold such things that keep heat inside. No, there were just round holes in the stone covered by a thin material to give privacy for windows and the door shaped holes had a pull over curtain also thick enough for people not to see through.

He was also entranced by the female dancers in their many coloured dresses, one had red, one had blue, one had yellow, one had green and one had white. The main dancer was the white one.

Sonic suddenly made a turn and Shadow only just managed to follow before almost being swallowed by another crowd. He realised Sonic was heading towards a set of sand stone stairs, the sand stone looking golden in the sunlight. _We are going up to where those bridges are above us? I won't admit it but I am actually excited...Sonic doesn't need to know that though, _Shadow thought to himself embarrassedly as he followed suit up the steps, his hover skates clinking against the solid stone. There were two flights to climb and the heat was starting to get to him the higher they got.

When they finally reached the top and Shadow would never admit that the ultimate life-from was out of breath, they were surrounded by huge clay pots of green plants that were mainly leaves and the most beautiful view he had ever seen. No wonder Shadow was exhausted, the closer you got to the centre the more up hill you went. The spectacular views of the bottom classes were on one side of the stone bridge and an amazing view of the palace at the top of the hill on the other side. Shadow peered over at the colourful girl dancers he had just past now below him, their stunning dresses looking even better from above.

Sonic turned around to check if Shadow was still there before heading into the building at the end of the bridge which seemed to be filled with musky red light. The sand in Shadows hover skates was starting to be a nuisance as it irritated him madly, the bridge itself covered in a thin layer of sand.

As he followed Sonic and entered the extremely cool building he had to try and restrain a sigh of utter relief at being out of the sun. Sonic had taken a wooden table on the far side of the room and was sitting waiting patiently for him to join; waiters in the traditional Sharmar cream robes were crossing the room giving people their orders. There was a strong smell of spices and freshly baked bread wafting through the air.

With relief he reached Sonic and sat down, only to realise Sonic had chosen a table very secluded from the others. Shadow smirked thinking it was a romance thing and Sonic just wanted to be alone with him. He went to touch Sonics hand but Sonic immediately retracted his hand that had been lying innocently on the table with a glare. Shadow didn't understand.

"We need to get some things straight before ya get us killed, that is why I chose this lone table and not because I want a...romantic scene with you." Sonic whispered the last part looking around and Shadow had the feeling he was in for something he wouldn't like.

"Firstly I spent most of my time in the second class areas like where we are now; there are four classes in total. Class four being the poorest, class one being the richest and the royal palace, and last of all second and third are the ones in-between." Sonic lectured, feeling good at being the most knowledgeable...for once. "However, even though they are in different classes all are treated with respect, since most people in the fourth class are very talented in art and crafting, as you saw when we entered the city. And people in the first class are not necessarily born gifted but have a high education allowing them to run the city. Each class needs each other to survive. So basically, don't treat any class higher or lower than any other."

Shadow just sat there amazed at how much his lover knew. A waiter came and Sonic ordered some water and naan bread for snacking. Shadow was only just starting to realise Sonic switched from `you` to `ya` depending on what his partner thought sounded better in a sentence.

"Secondly, as I have already told ya, desert foxes are sacred animals here...unless you need another slap for a reminder." Sonic sniggered and Shadow gave his signature glare and crossed his arms.

"No...I'm good." He replied bluntly.

"Thirdly, technology doesn't exist here, so don't use your hover skates or pull out your gun. You will frighten the citizens." Sonic whispered as not to cause alarm if anyone heard.

"And fourthly, and this is _incredibly_ important," Sonic stressed the word incredibly. "Homosexuals are forbidden in this country and if males are caught kissing, talking suggestively or even holding hands they are sentenced to death."

Shadows eyes widened and he paled. When he had chosen Sharmar to be the place him and Sonic went to he had not expected this.

**xXEND OF CHAPTERXx**

**Oh...my ...God. Even I admit I am impressed with this chapter. **_**Claimer: the desert fox worship, rules of the classes and the rules of the country Sharmar in general are all my ideas which I created on the spot**__**. **_**I have never left Britain in my life...but when I read this it feels so real as if I had actually been to a country like this and wrote it. **


	9. Starting in Sharmar

Starting in Sharmar

The day had gone by quickly and now a half moon had replaced the sun. Shadow noticed that there were even more people out at night than the day, Sonic had said it was because it was way too hot to stay out too long in the day and Shadow agreed with that.

The day had been spent with Sonic telling Shadow the customs of the city and its rules and also exploring the city, Shadow was still trying to recover from his lover knowing so much...he had never expected so much knowledge from Sonic. From Rouge yes, from Tails a definite yes, from Knuckles...hell no. But Sonic was also a no until now. It seemed Sonic had hidden some things about his past he had forgotten to mention.

Shadow was now on a sandstone balcony overlooking the streets, he looked at the half moon as the sound of music and singing in the Sharmar language rang through his ears._ It has been four days already since Tikal had turned up, which means we have approximately eighty four to eighty six days left to recover all seven pages. We haven't even got one_, Shadow thought in dismay as he swished the cool water in the delicate glass in his hand. _I wonder how the others are doing...or coping, _he added as an after thought as he took a sip of his refreshing water.

Shadow had already made three slip ups today, one with almost calling their scared animal filthy before Sonic stopped him, one where he had attempted to be romantic and touch Sonics hand which if they were spotted would have gotten them sentenced to death.

And finally, when they had arrived at this hotel. Sonic was booking the rooms; Shadow had peered over and was appalled that Sonic was getting them separate rooms. Shadow had asked "aren't we sharing?" The female receptionists' eyes had gone wide and Sonic immediately palm smacked his forehead. Sonic had then turned to the fearful receptionist and said, "don't worry he is my brother, he gets nervous when we are apart." The young woman had sighed in relief and had allowed them to have a twin room. Shadow had completely forgotten that Sharmar people were homophobic.

"Do you have any idea...how stupid that was?" Sonic said from behind him as he joined Shadow on the balcony, referring to the incident that had happened practically minutes ago.

"I did after you palm smacked your forehead." Shadow grinned and Sonic pouted, it was a reflex and he had hit his forehead hard enough for there to be a reddish handprint there. Shadow had found it hilarious and had attempted not to laugh in front of the receptionist. He didn't laugh out loud much since he didn't find much funny...but Sonics face as he palm smacked himself was priceless.

"Are you ever gonna let me live this down." Sonic couldn't help but give a little laugh of his own, it was pretty funny.

"Nope." Shadow agreed, a full hearted smile on his face as he watched the crowds mingling together down below them.

He had opened up a lot more and allowed himself to smile and laugh since it was only him and Sonic, he could uphold his cold, heartless reputation when the others were around and they were back in Soleanna. For now, it was time to come out of his defensive mental shell a bit more. Sonic had displayed knowledge and had opened up to him...now it was his turn.

"Come one." Shadow suddenly said before gulping the rest of his water down, placing the empty glass on the circular wooden table inside and heading for the door. Sonic cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Where are we goin?" Sonic asked as he hesitantly followed.

"To start getting information on where in the vast desert beyond this city the page could be. Which means joining in with the festival down below us." Shadow stated as he held the purple curtain door aside and waited for his partner. Sonic gave his signature cocky smirk, Shadow was basically saying his way of `lets have a bit of fun.`

XXXX

"I thought you were serious about our mission?" Sonic asked cheerfully as on his head he wore a pair of green fox ears on a headband, it was obvious it was the festival of the desert fox.

"I am, I have been asking and no one here has a clue," Shadow had to shout because all the loud singing and instruments were difficult to hear and speak over. He wore a pair of red fox ears on his own head. "Besides, not a lot of people here speak fluent English."

Giant pieces of transparent, coloured materials were hung up on the stone bridges above them, all Shadow noticed had avoided covering up the desert fox carvings on the yellow sand stone as a symbol of religious respect on the animals festival.

Suddenly something caught Shadows eye and before Sonic had a chance to grab his arm he had slipped out of his gloved fingers. He looked around sharply in panic; you could lose anyone in these closely compacted crowds of dancing people. Deciding it was best to just stay still, he waited for Shadow to return

Everything seemed to be suddenly turning into a blur in Sonics eyes, things were happening too fast which was definitely saying something for the fastest thing on the Earth. The music was too loud. The people were too close together. The dancing too fast. The space too small.

Sonic closed his eyes for a second, he had felt like this once before...but he couldn't remember when. He looked through the rare gaps that would appear in-between the dancing people trying to spot the red and black of Shadows fur. It didn't help that because they were hedgehogs the humans over towered them in height making it difficult to see through. Sonic was so enclosed within the crowd he couldn't move. Suddenly his heart felt like it was frozen solid. He thought he saw someone familiar.

Sonic looked in-between the people he had just saw a familiar smirk from again...but it was gone. He spun around feeling confused as everything seemed unnatural. He suddenly caught the twinkle of a blue eye behind red sunglasses in another gap in the crowd somewhere else. But when the people parted again it had vanished. Sonics heart began to race, he was certain those strangely familiar blue eyes were looking straight at him. Then again he caught a glimpse of green in another gap. Once again it disappeared.

"Sonic?"

Sonic felt like he had jumped a hundred feet in the air. He wiped the sweat that had developed from fear on his forehead with one hand. Clutched his rapidly beating chest with the other.

"Shadow." He answered breathlessly, not realising how terrified he had actually become.

"What's wrong? What happened!" Shadow was becoming anxious from Sonics very dilated pupils which meant he had been very scared. Hardly anything made his partner scared.

"I...I swear I saw..." Sonic tried to get it out as he glanced around the dancing crowd again. There was nothing now.

"Do you want to go home?" Shadow asked gently. Sonic just gave a nod before they made their way through the loud crowd and headed back to the hotel room; they had been at the festival for a good hour anyway.

XXXX

"Are you sure you're alright?"Asked Shadow gently, Sonic looked incredibly pale.

"Yeah...I am now." Sonic assured him as he drank some more water that Shadow had given him.

To be honest he couldn't place who he thought the familiar stranger was, he hadn't seen enough to get a clear picture. It was this that frightened him, not knowing who it was. He took another hasty gulp of water. He was sitting with his knees to his chest on his single bed at the moment, unable to walk because he was trembling. Shadow sat on the edge keeping an eye on him.

Sonics green fox ear headband lay forgotten on the table, he had been too shaken up when Shadow had pried them off his head and placed them there to notice. A pair of identical red ones lay on top of the green ones. The half moon was quite high in he sky, it suggested it was either ten or eleven and night.

"I have something for you." Shadow muttered quietly as he put his hands in his head quills and took out two necklaces.

They were made of three strings woven together for extra strength and each had a smooth yellow sand stone the size of an average thumb shaped as a desert foxs' head. The craftsmanship was stunning, the mouths of the desert fox's were wide open revealing four stone fangs, two at the bottom of the mouth and two at the top. Within the large open mouth held in place by these four fangs lay a sparkling gemstone; one of the necklaces had an emerald colour stone whilst the other had a ruby coloured one. Shadow opened up Sonics hand and gave him the foxs' head holding the emerald coloured stone in its mouth. Sonic was stunned; he didn't know what to say. _Thank you would be a good start Sonic_, his thoughts shouted at him sarcastically as Shadow looked at him expectantly.

"Thanks Shads, it's lovely, I love it." Sonics voice was filled with truth and sincerity and combined with Shadows pet name made Shadow smile at his lover liking his gift.

Just to make things worse Shadow felt his head explode at that moment, the headache was back with reinforcements and was stronger than ever. He had thought they had stopped but apparently not.

"Shads?" Sonic asked uncertainly, seeing the pain fly across his partners face and his black eye lids close from the agony.

"Fine...just need...sleep." Shadow bit out as he clutched his head with a gloved hand.

Sonic moved from the bed to allow Shadow to have that one, it would mean not having to travel across the room to get to the other bed. Helping Shadow under the white covers he then took the red stone fox necklace and placed it on the circular table along with his green one next to the fox ear headbands.

Sonic then crawled into the other bed, looking at Shadow from across the room. He seriously hoped he would be alright.

**xXEND OF CHAPTERXx**

**I hope you took mental notes of things in this chapter because all are very important. See you in the next chapter.**


	10. Chun nan

Chun-nan

Clouds flew slowly across the sky covering the half moon with a high possibility of rain as Rouge and Knuckles climbed up a grey rocky mountain. Mountain goats baaed in the distance as Rouge kept slipping on the moss covering the mountain side. Tails had only dropped them off hours ago and had immediately taken flight again to get Blaze and Silver Holoska as soon as possible, the flight to Holoska would be the longest from here.

A calm breeze rolled over their shoulders as they ascended the mountain; they had to reach the top in order to see the small Chinese town of Chun-nan which was situated within the valley of mountains.

As the top came into the view and the temperature felt beyond freezing the clouds were now touchable causing a mist to surround them. It was becoming extremely difficult to see. Their hands felt raw even with their gloves on as they climbed and climbed with what felt like no end.

Knuckles was the best at climbing with his strong hands and spiked fists, he scaled the mountain side with ease and Rouge getting tired of being left behind decided to take flight. Being an echidna he was better at climbing and she being a bat was better at flying.

Rouge felt completely in her element, flying like a bat should in the light of the moon in the dead of night. Breathing in the fresh mountain air she flew past her fiancé to check it was safe above. Realising what she was doing knuckles held firm and stayed put. Rouge then came through the mist with nod and wink; it seemed they had finally reached the top.

"Remind me never to listen to Shadow again!" knuckles shouted into the mist hoping she would hear, his voice echoing within the mountain range. He immediately regretted it when a large rock came loose and blundered towards him. With wide eyes he only just managed to escape quick enough to avoid being hit...he would have been dragged all the way to the bottom again if he had.

"If you haven't gathered yet, Hun, you shouldn't shout here." Rouge gave a seductive smile as she placed a gloved finger over his mouth in a silent gesture.

Knuckles gave a gruff audible growl as he continued to climb. Rouge was right; they were nearing the top. The wind was becoming more vicious and brutally cold. Knuckles' hand grasped what felt like a tree root or branch and he hoisted himself up, the sound of flapping wings signalled that Rouge was hovering just above him. Gasping for breath he just stood there hunched over for a while as Rouge tried to hold in a snigger.

"Unlike you batgirl, I can't fly, I glide." Knuckles bit out, just because they were getting married didn't mean they never continued as normal. Rouge gave a pretend hurt expression with a dramatic hand to her chest where her heart was.

Then in the light of the half moon above in the sky and the thousands of diamond stars...they saw the lights of the small town of Chun-nan below them in the mountain valley. The thing Knuckles had grabbed to get himself up was indeed a root to a graceful cherry blossom tree swaying in the wind, the tree Rouge was now leaning against as she saw their destination. It was an amazing sight, Rouge against the pinks of the flowers of the blossom tree. The moonlight shining on her white fur. Dancing across her sapphire eyes.

This was why he loved her, she was beautiful and he loved her personality, although he would never deny that her personality had driven him mad when they had first ever met...but he had warmed up to it since then.

"Well, let's get started." Rouge suddenly laughed and without warning she ran to the edge and dived off the edge, her graceful bat wings catching the winds as she glided through the air. Knuckles was flustered for a second at the unexpected dive. Forgetting she could fly he stumbled to the edge and clumsily tripped on another of the pink cherry blossom trees' roots. He fell straight over the edge with a cry. Landing face first against a rock ledge.

Rouge burst into tears of laughter in her flight. _Man, my husband to be can be so clumsy...but I love that about him, _she thought happily as knuckles managed to give a small, weak, muffled sound of `I'm ok` from where he lay. Feeling pity for him she flew back with a flutter of her wings to land where he lay.

"Are you alright Honey." Rouge sounded genuinely concerned as Knuckles managed to lift his head slightly to meet her blue eyes with his violet ones.

"Yeah...I think so." Knuckles said dazedly as he rubbed his now very sore head. He was now sitting crossed legged on the cold, soft and moist moss of the ledge, the moss making his landing not as bad as it could have been.

"Come on darling," Rouge said soothingly as she offered her gloved hand. "Don't you trust me?"

Knuckles looked up from where he sat to Rouges smiling face, the wind causing her large ears to flutter slightly and the half moon lay just behind her. It was a romantic looking scene...but wasn't it usually the girl on the floor and the male offering his hand. Knuckles didn't care; Rouge was always the more dominant one of the two anyway. Giving a grin he grasped her hand tightly.

"Of course I do...I wouldn't have asked you to marry me otherwise." Knuckles replied in an unusually soft voice.

Rouge gave a smile and clasped her fingers even more tightly around Knuckles' own mitt. She expanded her wings to their full wingspan and gave a small wink to Knuckles, before she gave a couple of strong wing beats and took flight. Knuckles had never flown before, he could glide but that was always towards the ground...he couldn't fly like Rouge.

The thrill of the air rushing against his face was exhilarating as Rouge flew them higher. Chun-nan forgotten below as she gave Knuckles a taste of what she experienced. Higher and higher they flew until the whole mountain range could be seen around them. White and pink cherry blossom trees fluttered below them on the mountain sides. Lakes glistened in the moonlight. Their pink, orange and white water lilies bathing in the moonlight. Knuckles gave a huge smile as he saw what Rouge saw through his own eyes. He held even more tightly to Rouges hand, making the bat in turn grin.

"Shall we return now Hun? You are not made for real flying and are probably not used to the minus temperatures up here." Rouge asked worriedly, noticing Knuckles beginning to Shiver.

A nod was all she needed and she began to slowly descend into a glide towards the ground. She circled the small city below her like a hawk would do prey as she slowly got lower and lower. The temperature slowly going up. Chun-nan was neutral in climate; it wasn't freezing like Holoska or boiling hot like Sharmar. It was just right.

Rouge landed on the cobbled streets with practiced ease; however knuckles gave a little stumble. His head was a little fuzzy from the experience of being so high. People in the street moved aside happily for the new arrivals, the street filled with Chinese instruments playing and the sweet smell of peach buns.

"We are not that far away, there is someone I want you to meet." Rouge told him excitedly as she dragged Knuckles by their still holding hands through the multi-coloured lantern filled streets. Their shoes tapped on the grey cobbled stones as Knuckles noticed that most of the houses had a red and cream colour scheme as people in different coloured kimonos bowed to each other in the street. Beautiful, tiny, red birds cocked their heads to side at him from where they were perched on a long string above him that lanterns hung from. They tweeted merrily before flying off together, obviously a pair.

"Pan-Yo!" Rouge suddenly screamed out as she let go of Knuckles' hand and hugged a man that had just come out of a wooden Chinese fishing boat from the lake knuckles had seen from above. Its lilies petals swaying peacefully on the waters surface.

"My young Rouge, how are you living?" The man had a very heavy Chinese accent to his English as he bowed to Rouge in welcome, Rouge bowed back.

"I am doing very well thank you, this is my fiancé Knuckles." Rouge suddenly said and motioned to Knuckles, making knuckles blush at being put on the spot.

The man looked to be in his forty's; his hair was pure black and was made into one plait which reached his waist. He had doe brown eyes and had a moustache that was just two thin lines of hair that trailed off his chin and reached the base of his neck. He wore a dark blue kimono with the sleeves long enough that they covered his hands when they were at his sides. The dark blue Kimono was stitched with golden thread that sparkled in the moonlight. The man named Pan-Yo bowed extra low to Knuckles. Knuckles felt unsure so just followed Rouges example and bowed in return.

"You are a lucky young man, Knuckles; take care of her...for a flower never loses its beauty whilst it is looked after properly." Pan-Yo said this as he bent down slowly over the lake side and picked a pink water from its leathery green lily pad. He turned to Rouge with a white toothed smile and gently tied it around one of her ears. The pink lily was beautiful against her sapphire eyes.

"Tell, young Rouge, what brings you back here to our humble town?" Pan-Yo asked as he tied his fishing boat with a piece of strong rope to a post at the side on the wooden harbour they were currently standing on.

"We are heading to the museum; we have to find something...a page from a magical book called the Book of Moon. Do you know it?" Rouge asked as she put her hands behind her back and bent over the wooden pier slightly to look at her reflection in the lakes moonlit waters, she admired the pink lily as she saw Knuckles join her reflection at her side in the water.

"Yes I do, however the museum does not open until the sun rises. You can stay with my family for the night. Yes?" Pan-Yo folded his arms as he started to walk and Rouge and Knuckles followed.

"That would be lovely, thank you uncle Yo." Rouge laughed as she remembered what the man had asked her to call him on her first ever mission here. _Uncle Yo?_ Knuckles mentally thought, a mocking grin plastered on his face. _Oh I am never going to let her live this down!_

"Remember when we first met, young Rouge?" Pan-Yo began as they continued through the many streets with beautiful paintings and delicious foods on stalls.

"Yes...I remember that very well." Rouge then started to tell Knuckles of how they met.

**Rouge was flying steadily through the air above the lily lake of Chun-nan, it was the first time she had ever been here before and she admired the rich culture and beautiful scenery. The sun was high within the sky and not a single cloud dared interrupt its brilliant rays.**

**Suddenly she spotted a man waving to her in the middle of the lake; he was in a Chinese fishing boat and seemed to be stuck within the reeds. His calls were carried on the wind to her huge bat ears as she landed on the edge of the boat, her large wings spread out fully for balance.**

"**Need a hand Hun?" She asked casually as the man looked at her with amazement. He fell to his knees in front of her making her raise and eyebrow at him.**

"**Please...can you untangle me from the reeds...I can not get free." He pleaded, still on his knees in the wooden fishing boat; the boat itself was rocking smoothly on the small lapping waves of the lake.**

**Without a word there was a splash and small water droplets rained down on the little boat. Rouge swam through the greenish waters using her wings to propel her forward as she saw the wavy reeds caught around the rudder beneath the boat. An underwater world was all she could see, filled with small golden fish swimming by, bubbles and long swaying reed leaves. When she looked up she saw the bottoms of the many lily pads of the lake.**

**Grasping the tangled reeds within her fingers she pulled, twisted and turned them. They were stuck pretty tightly. She felt her air starting to run out and with one final desperate tug she managed to get the rudder loose. Darting to the surface as she gulped in precious air.**

"**Thank you! Thank you!" the man was now standing and bowing to her as she dragged her soaking wet self onto the boat.**

"**What is your name?" The man asked happily as he handed her a light blue towel.**

"**Rouge, yours?" She asked breathlessly, still trying to recover.**

"**I am Pan-Yo, nice to meet you young Rouge."**

"Why did he fall to his knees when he first met you?" Knuckles questioned, fascinated with the story.

"Didn't you know? Bats are classed as lucky in Chun-nan, they say if you see a bat you get good luck. They are part of the religion here." Rouge answered and smiled at Pan-Yo. Pan-Yo smiled in return.

"Yes, bats truly are lucky since it was a bat that saved me." Pan-Yo burst out happily. The three continued to chat and tell stories all the way to Pan-Yo's house.

**xXEND OF CHAPTERXx**

**Now **_**claimer: Pan-Yo and the story behind him is mine. Things I forgot to mention before is that Pearl and her father Simon form Apotos in Sorrow on Wheels are also mine, this whole storyline with the Book of Moon and the pages is also completely mine. **_**Anyway I thought you would like to know that it is actually true that bats are considered lucky in china, I did not make that up.**

**Hope you are enjoying it so far and I hope you continue to enjoy it. It is after this chapter that the action starts to set in.**

**xXSonicgirl582Xx**


	11. Starting in Chun nan

Starting in Chun-Nan

Sadly, Rouge awoke to the pitter-patter of rain against her window as the sky was dark with rain clouds. The pink water lily that had once been tied around her ear last night was now in a small crystal vase on the window sill, giving happiness to the rainy day. Rouge sighed as she got up from the bed and sat down to stare at it from her wooden chair, looking at the detail of the pink fading into white at the tips of its glorious petals.

Pan-Yo's house was just like any common Chinese house. There were no carpets just shiny wooden floor boards. The walls were not painted any colour and were just white; however patterns of dragons and flowers had been painted on by hand in black and brown inks. The lights were candle lanterns that hung from the ceiling, the lanterns were all yellow in colour allowing there to be as much light as possible from the small candles. But even so the room still held a sort of comforting darkness.

Rouge felt strangely melancholy today, perhaps it was the rain. She gave another hefty sigh as she turned to knuckles still sleeping in the bed, snoring away as usual. That gave a small spark of happiness...but she could not shake the bad feeling deep in her heart. Something was going to happen. Either it be her and Knuckles, Sonic and Shadow, Tails and Tikal or Blaze and Silver. It was going to happen to one of them. She knew because she had dreamt it...but didn't see the victim.

"What is the matter my young Rouge? Why do the clouds hang so low in your head?" Rouge jumped as Pan-Yo came in with no shoes on and he sat in the opposite chair to Rouge. Watching her movements closely.

"I...see these things...things of what will come to pass," Rouge muttered solemnly as she drew her gaze from the lily on the window sill to the rain trickling down the window outside. "Terrible things."

"Ah...sometimes good comes from bad, you are obviously here on a bad mission to stop some evil, but it has brought you here...back to me. That is good from bad." Pan-Yo said, as his eyes looked into space as if recognising the scenario. "Don't live your life worrying about the bad things...think of the good things."  
Rouge smiled, remembering she had told everyone on the plane the exact same thing. She put her bare hand under her chin and crossed one leg over the other as she continued to gaze out of the window.

"Take this lily for example..." Pan-Yo continued. "It has had something horrible done to it. It has been plucked from where it lived, that is the bad. But here it brightens up the room with its colour...that is the good."

"But, the same thing is bad for one creature and good for another; it isn't both in one living thing." Rouge pointed out as she turned to lock eyes with Pan-Yo's brown ones. "Being taken away is bad for the lily and the colour it brings to the room is good for us...not the lily as well."

"Yes, but the lily _learns_ to live with the bad and drinks the water from the vase to survive...like you should continue living and learn from your mistakes. Just like the picked lily."

"What was the lily's mistake?" Rouge asked confused as Pan-Yo stood up and prepared to leave, he stopped in the doorway and smiled at Rouge.

"Being too beautiful...like you. knuckles is lucky to have you. Good bye young Rouge" Pan-Yo finished and left, leaving her alone in the chair to think about the things he had said, to collect her scattered thoughts. She took one more glance at the said lily, before going to the bed to wake up Knuckles.

XXXX

"Good luck with your mission young Rouge, we will see you afterwards. Yes?" Pan-Yo asked as he handed Rouge and knuckles a red Chinese umbrella each, the rain was still falling pretty heavily.

"That depends Uncle Yo, we may come back we may not...it depends on what happens." Rouge replied, her face showing no emotion as she replayed the conversation she had had with him earlier this morning.

Pan-Yo's two small children were waving cheerfully at the door next to him, the two girls were five year old twins with black hair like their father and blue eyes like their mother. They had stunning crystal flower clips in their hair and they were both named after flowers because of their beauty, one was named Lily and the other was named Sakura after the blossom tree. Rouge put on a fake smile and waved to the children, Pan-Yo's wife wasn't at the door because she was currently heavily pregnant and didn't want to move much.

Saying one final goodbye they walked away from the protection the rain guard gave the door and into the pouring rain, the weather really did resemble her emotions right now.

"Are you ok, you seem out of it?" Knuckles voice sounded honestly concerned and she shook her head, making Knuckles even more worried.

"Do not worry Hun, let's just hurry up and get to the museum." Rouge avoided the subject and sped up. Knuckles froze in his tracks, the rain thundering on his red Chinese umbrella as he watched Rouge walk ahead. His violet eyes sharp like a sword, she would tell him when she was ready.

He followed slowly after her through the deserted wet streets of Chun-nan as they headed to their destination. Chun-nans museum.


	12. On the run

On the run

Sonic awoke to the sun already high in the clear blue sky, once again the clouds not daring to appear and cover up its beauty. Once again it was so hot it was unbearable. He sat up groggily and looked over to Shadow in his bed on the other side of the room. Shadow was awake, his headache seemingly gone...for now.

"Hey, how are ya doin?" Sonic asked with a yawn as he lifted himself from the bed with a creak and his bare blue feet touched the cool yellow sand stone, in truth it was quite refreshing.

"I am alright, how about you?" Shadow replied and questioned casually, his voice its normal low and silky tone proving the headaches had indeed vanished for the moment.

Sonic just gave a nod and a reassuring smile as he reached for the circular wooden table with the fox ear head bands and the smooth, yellow, sand stone fox head necklaces with the gemstones in their mouths from yesterday. He admired the craftsmanship yet again and watched as the sunlight pouring through the open entrance of the balcony twinkled and sparkled off the glorious emerald coloured stone of his necklace. Swinging it over his head he put it on, it got stuck on his head spikes a couple of times but when he finally got it around his neck it fit perfectly. Shadow was entranced as the emerald coloured gemstone matched his lovers emerald coloured eyes perfectly. It was almost exactly the same shade of green.

Sonic walked over and gave Shadow his fox head necklace with the red gemstone in its mouth before turning around briskly to put on his red shoes lying beside his own bed and his gloves. Staring into the sculptured eyes of the fox in the smooth sand stone Shadow decided he would wear his too. Finding it much harder to put it on since some of his spikes were upturned and it got caught more easily. But he managed to get it around his neck and looked at his reflection in the oval mirror literally in front of him on the wall opposite his bed. It matched his crimson eyes perfectly too.

"Right, no more fooling around Faker. This is the fifth day Since Tikal came to us, we have approximately eighty five days left to find all seven pages...we haven't even gotten close to finding one. Unless the others are having more luck than us right now." Shadow smirked as he saw Sonic twirl in front of the mirror, admiring his fox necklace.

"Oh chillax, as you said we are only on our fifth day- I am just as worried about Mephiles as you are. We will definitely work harder today." Sonic suddenly changed his attitude with a sweat drop halfway through as Shadow gave him his signature glare that could freeze a volcano on the spot. You could never go against that glare in fear he would murder you. Lover or not.

XXXX

The sun was once again burning down on the city of Sharmar and it was so unbearably hot that Shadow had bought sun-cream for both him and Sonic, more for Sonic since his skin was much more paler and hence forth more likely to burn. However, being black furred made him ten times hotter than Sonic so he was constantly drinking water from a glass bottle he carried around.

Once again the Sharmar streets of the second class section were busy entertaining tourists and visitors with their singing, dancing and playing of Sharmar instruments. Children played in the ankle high pools again as they splashed each other with glee. The yellow sand stone looked as unique and exquisite as ever in the morning sun. The green leaves of the plants in their clay pots in the shade were sparkling with water which had doused them in their morning drink. But the plants that were currently in the sun already had dry leaves since the heat had evaporated what water had settled there quickly.

"Don't ya think it's weird?" Sonic asked out of the blue and Shadow stopped walking, going back on last conversations in his mind to see if his lover was continuing one or something. Nothing came to mind.

"What is weird?" Shadow asked, genuinely confused.

"The way the female receptionist looked at us this morning." Sonic replied as he turned around to face Shadow who still hadn't moved.

"If you are on about the scowl she presented us then yes, I do think it's weird." Shadow raised an eyebrow, so he wasn't the only one who had noticed.

"Ya haven't done anything against what I have told you, have ya?" Sonic blamed as he crossed his arms and tapped his foot in annoyance.

"No! Or at least I think I have not." Shadow was taken aback at the sudden anger Sonics usually soft emerald eyes contained, his own crimson eyes getting very distracted by the green gem twinkling in the sun in the fox head necklace against his chest.

Sonic gave a sigh and stopped tapping his foot, uncrossing his arms he glanced around the small crowds. It was not as crowded as last night since less people came out in the day in Sharmar. It was then he noticed something. He quickly stalked up to Shadow.

"Shadow, everyone is giving us dirty looks!" Sonic bit out nervously, making his voice as much as a whisper he could manage. Shadows eyes widened and he too looked around the golden streets sharply. Sonic was right.

A woman grabbed her child and took the boy away, looking in their direction as if they were scum. A crowd of men sneered at them before turning back to gossip, pretending they weren't talking about them. The problem was they were talking in the Sharmar language and neither hedgehog understood what they were saying. The colourful female dancers from yesterday stopped dancing and gasped in horror before running away. The musicians fell silent with malicious growls.

"This is weird, are you sure ya haven't done anything?" Sonic whispered seriously, unnerved by the citizens reactions to the two. A snarl and a very effective glare stopped him.

"Point taken." Sonic whimpered slightly at his partners death glare.

"SEIZE THEM!" Sonic and Shadow both gasped at the loud order penetrating the silence of the frightened streets. "ARREST THOSE TWO FOR HOMOSEXUALITY!"

Sonic and Shadow spun around to see a gang of at least ten men in armour on large white stallions, holding spears and pointing at the two with pure hatred.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Sonic shouted at Shadow, the black and red hedgehog pissed off at the continuous blames on him.

"ME! EVER THOUGHT IT WAS SOMETHING YOU DID!" Shadow roared back in rage, completely forgetting the crowds of watching people around them.

"GET THEM!" Another order pierced the silent air as the strong white stallions started to charge towards them. Their hooves galloping loudly on the sand stone floor.

Both hedgehogs began to run. But Shadow couldn't use his hover skates because it was technology and it would scare the citizens even more. He snarled in frustration and let Sonic grab his hand and run for all he was worth. Which was obviously a lot. Crowds deliberately tried to move in the way. But in a blink of an eye the hedgehogs were gone.

"Well, if it wasn't you and it was definitely not me... then who rented us out?" Sonic asked over the rushing winds. Thinking of the strangely familiar stranger he got glimpses of last night. Men tried to grab them. But Sonic slipped through their fingers.

"I don't know." Shadow answered honestly. "What do we do now? We are not welcome here."

"Find a place to hide fir-"

Sonic didn't finish, the street ahead was suddenly filled with guards. _How did they get there?_ Sonic thought wildly. His eyes widened. He just managed to turn a corner and run down a shadowed alleyway before one guard could snatch him up. His heart began to race. They kept running down the dark alley. Shadow only just managed to keep up without his hover skates. The smell of rubbish and decay almost made them vomit. Suddenly they hit a dead end.

"Great...I am having a giant sense of déjà vu." Shadow snorted as he remembered when they were running away from the GUN soldiers when they were fleeing to the GUN headquarters to grab a plane. They had hit a dead end then too.

Sonics sensitive ears picked up the sound of rattling armour. The guards were running down the alley they had just come through. Their shadows dancing off the walls. He glanced up to see clear blue sky. Their only hope.

"Triangle jump upwards!" Sonic told him. Shadow nodded as they started to bounce off the same wall in unison. Feet hit the other wall to immediately rebound off again. Sand dripped from where their shoes hit. Fingers gripped the rim of the wall. Both Sonic and Shadow stylishly did a handstand to end with a crouch as their feet touched the flat roof. The roof was covered in sand. Sand which was churned up with their landing. They smiled at each other. Sonic gave a grin and his signature thumbs up before they both got up and began to run.

XXXX

"They are not here!" One male guard screamed in rage but was silenced by the leader of the group with a hand, the guard was immediately silenced.

"They were here," the leader stated as he kneeled down carefully to see the sand filling the alleyway had indents of footprints which stopped at the dead end wall. He glanced upwards at the gap and saw some very small, almost unrecognisable indents were on the walls, he smiled evilly. "They went up."

XXXX

"That was way too close." Sonic called as they leapt from roof to roof, moving from the second class section to the third. Churning up the thick layer of sand that covered the roofs as they went. No one had spotted them yet. As they leapt the wind ruffled their head quills. The wind stiffened up their sweat on their bodies. Mostly Shadows.

Suddenly Shadows eyes widened. He didn't have time to warn Sonic. A sharp spear suddenly soared past in front of Sonics face. Effectively throwing him off balance mid jump. Shock went over his face as he felt his footing go. Shadow put his hand out to grab his wrist. But he missed. Sonic fell.

"We've got one!" The guard screeched in victory.

Sonic fell down in-between the houses into another dark alleyway. Landing painfully on a bunch of drying pottery pots. The pots shattered to pieces. He groaned in agony as a young girl wearing a pink scarf on her head and pink clothes screamed at her ruined work.

"Heh...Sorry," Sonic apologised with a smirk as he got up milliseconds later and broke the sound barrier. The girl screeched as she felt the sudden burst of air whip her face. Sonic slowed down to a walk to make sure he didn't hit something in this very narrow sand stone alley.

"Now I have to find Sha-URM!" Sonic never finished his sentence for an unexpected hand over his mouth stopped it and dragged him roughly behind a barrel.

XXXX

"Sonic! Sonic where are you?" Shadow hissed down the dark alleyway, the shade undeniably refreshing. Sonic hadn't come out and he was petrified that the guards had actually caught him when he had fallen. Shadow had been waiting for ten minutes.

He continued to walk swiftly. His ears pricked to listen out for the guards. He froze when he saw footprints...familiar footprints. They were heading straight for him, but there was a smudge in the sand as if there had been a struggle. Looking more closely he noticed it led to behind the barrel. Growling he approached it and easily pushed the barrel out of the way. There, at the bottom of the wall, was a slit big enough for a man to slide through if he was on his back or stomach. Narrowing his eyes he had a closer look.

"Sonic?" he whispered harshly. He wished he hadn't.

A man that wasn't Sonic suddenly grabbed him and yanked him into the slit and covered his mouth with incredible force and strength. Struggling against the many hands now holding him down he saw a blind fold being placed over his eyes and the mutters of the men saying things in the Sharmar language filled his ears as he was tied up with chains around his ankles and wrists. He hadn't had time to use a chaos spear. As he was towed away to goodness knows where a young girl wearing a pink scarf and pink clothes ran down the sandy alleyway. She slipped through the gap and put her hands back out to pull the barrel back into place. Effectively covering up the entrance from prying eyes.


	13. Captured

Captured

Dust tickled his nose threatening to make him sneeze. Strong chains rubbed against his wrists making them sore. Eyes covered with a blindfold making it impossible to see anything apart from blackness. His ears were pricked with alertness as that was the only sense even remotely useable.

Shadow channelled all his chaos energy to his ears making them tens times more sensitive so he could pick up even the people in the streets above them, although this proved more of a distraction than an advantage and he snarled with annoyance. He was surrounded in all aspects and couldn't find a way out of it.

Struggling only made them pull him more roughly and he could already feel the warm trickle of what was undoubtedly blood down his wrists and soaking into his white gloves. He was extremely worried, if Sonic had been captured before him what had happened to him? If only he could get the red chaos emerald in his head quills.

It felt like hours as he felt himself being towed down what felt like many twisting passageways, by what Shadow could gather whilst completely blind was that he was in some sort of sandy labyrinth. His eyes being covered so he could not know the way out.

Then suddenly he heard something in the distance, it was muffled either suggesting the sound was gagged or a door was in the way. Trying to depict the sound his ears swivelled to catch it and he smirked as he heard the unmistakable sound of a rusty handle being forced down with a creak. He was right...there was door.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH-" the muffled sound became the well known voice of his stubborn lover and Sonic froze when spotting him. Shadow could almost hear the shocked look of Sonic right about now.

Then a growl filled Shadows ears and then the sound of chains clinking with the strain Sonic was putting on them as he struggled, Sonic was also chained up.

Suddenly someone roughly yanked his blindfold off and Shadow blinked as he readjusted to the dim light, dust particles drifted through the air with the only light being that of some candles in the corner of the room. But even through the dim light he could still see the fire of resistance in Sonics eyes from even here. Sonic was chained to the wall by his wrists but his legs were free, the people in the room were keeping their distance from him seemingly already felt the mighty power of one of his kicks. Shadow couldn't help but smirk.

Shadow was forced to his knees with a snarl, the sand covered floor horrid and gritty beneath them. Now that Shadow looked at the people surrounding him they were not dressed in the armour of the guards but were dressed as normal citizens, but Shadow didn't want to let that deceive him.

"Are you the two that committed homosexuality?" One man ordered with a heavy Sharmar accent. Both Sonic and Shadow just glared and gave no answer. Shadow felt the hand grasping his head quills to keep him down suddenly pull nastily making his head get forced back. Shadow hissed at the treatment and defiantly met eyes with the brown ones of the man above him.

"Who wants to know?" Shadow responded with narrowed eyes. At the black hedgehogs resilient attitude the man thrust his free hand in the air ready to strike his face.

"Do not even dare!" Every man in the room froze; in fact when Shadow looked even more closely there was not a single female...apart from the one that had just entered the room.

Every man apart from the one that held Shadow fell to their knees in strong respect for the pink clad girl that had entered the room. Sonic gasped, that was the same girl that had had the pottery out and Sonic had accidently fallen on them and shattered them. A pang of guilt filled him, but was immediately replaced with searing rage. These people were obviously in league with the young girl that looked no older than eleven.

"What do you want?" Shadow growled out showing his fangs. The man who was handling him at the moment was about to force his fist down again into his face when a single hand movement of the girl froze him in his tracks. He retracted his hand, obviously fearing the young girls' wrath. Shadow was now intrigued with the young girl.

"Who are you?" Shadow asked more gently, his voice overflowing with curiosity.

The girl gave a small sweet smile and with a click of her fingers the men immediately began to undo the chains on Shadows wrists and ankles. The men approaching Sonic looked fearful of the blue ones flattened ears and growling as they slowly approached him.

Once Shadow was free of the restraints he began rubbing his bleeding wrists trying to force some blood into them as the same man that had handled him snarled and handed him some clean bandages for the damaged wrists. Forcing himself onto his feet from the sandy floor with his feet slightly shaky from the lack of blood circulating there, he took the bandages with a nod and gave a glare at the mans' behaviour. Deciding instantly that he hated this particular man.

Hearing the struggling of the men with Sonic Shadow spun around, his coldest glare he could muster aimed fully at his blue counterpart. Noticing this Sonic calmed and allowed the people to get the rusty metal chains off, but not without a small snort of defiance.

Once Sonic was released he rubbed his own sore wrists and the people who had unlocked his bonds fled to a safe distance. Sonic grinned maliciously at this and walked confidently to stand beside his lover. His hand fiddling with his stone fox head necklace as he came.

"If this is about the pots I can easily pay ya back." Sonic stated with a shrug and Shadow raised an eyebrow at this, wondering what on earth he had missed. A hand in the air and a smile meant she wanted silence. Sonics eye twitched with anger as he hated being ordered around. Shadow gave a small smile; he liked the authority this young girl held.

"We are not safe here...please follow me." The young girl whispered with her English being very clear, as she walked up to the candles in the corner of the room. The room had only one door which Shadow had come through, there were no other windows or doors. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling and Shadow gave a shiver as it seemed the temperature was much, much cooler down here than on the surface. Large chains rattled as they dangled form the ceiling reminding Sonic of a prison cell. The walls were made of huge bricks of rough yellow sandstone that occasionally dripped raw sand unlike the smooth sandstone above the surface in the city. The thick layer of sand on the floor was churned up by the many feet of the men and themselves as they followed close behind the young girl clad in pink. The girl that had swiftly turned to them with a grace a girl so young should never be able to achieve.

"You must swear that what you are about to see will remain secret." The girls' voice was sweet and soft as silk, kind of reminding Sonic of Shadows voice but a lot higher.

Both Sonic and Shadow turned to each other, Sonics gaze showing uncertainty whilst Shadows told him to behave. They both turned back to girl and gave a hesitant nod of approval. The girl gave another sweet smile with her very fine lips, close up they realised the girl was wearing pink eye-shadow and had very piercing blue eyes. A rare colour for someone of Sharmar. Nearly everyone here had brown.

Her pink Sharmar dress fluttered elegantly through the air as she turned back to the three, thick, white candles sitting in their black rusty holders. Their orange light the only happiness in the dull and dark room as the tongue shaped lights flickered slightly in the small draft in the room. _Wait a draft! There is another entrance in here...but where?_ Shadow thought ecstatically and turning to Sonic he could also see the same revelation in his emerald orbs.

"THIS WAY! DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY!"

Sonics heart almost stopped. Shock within him as he spun around. Shadows and lights of fire torches were dancing underneath the closed door. The only way into the room. There was only one way in and no way out. Sonic felt himself sweat nervously. Everyone covered their mouths with their hands to keep themselves silent. The girl took haste and grabbed the largest candle. Sonics eyes widened as the lights drew closer. The girl took the medium sized candle. The shadows froze behind the door. The girl took the smallest candle. The shadows began to creep towards them. Shadow felt his heart quicken as the shadows stopped. All candles were put onto different holders. All candles lowered slightly. A wall behind the candles turned to reveal pure darkness beyond. The handle of the door began to turn.

"FREEZE!" The guards screamed in unison as they burst through the door.

All the guards gave gasps of confusion. There was nothing in here apart from three unlit candles on black holders. The room was completely dark and empty.

XXXX

The girl in pink had her ear against the wall along with Shadow, Sonic and two other men. They heard the sound of footsteps drawing nearer to the wall they were behind, the sounds of hurried feet as the guards searched the empty room and churned up the sand floor. They wouldn't find them.

The young girl motioned quietly with her hand to move slowly down the steps descending downwards and away from the wall. All eyes remained locked on the door as step by step, with racing hearts, they moved ever so slowly backwards deep into the darkness. What was once clear sounds of cries of anguish from the guards became just muffled noises as the darkness got thicker and thicker. They continued to step backwards down the stairs, not daring to think it was safe to take their eyes from the secret stone door.

Once all they could hear was their own shaky breaths a man behind Shadow suddenly lit up a fire torch with a spark from flints. Freezing as the sound echoed throughout the long descending passage. When they were all convinced the guards hadn't heard they all gave large sighs of relief. Sonic leant up against the rough sand stone wall, the orange light of the torch flickering across his relieved emerald eyes as his hand gripped his chest with a death grip. Shadow not that far behind as he stood next to Sonic trying to get his breathing back under control.

"Who are you?" Sonic managed to murmur as his eyes met the blue ones of the young girl, but she just shook her head.

"It still isn't safe...we must continue until we reach the city." She answered quietly as she passed Sonic and took the torch with the fiery embers, with a nod to all of the men she took lead and all the two hedgehogs could do was follow. _Reach the city?...but we are heading downwards, _Shadow mentally thought suspiciously as they were swallowed into the long, dark, stone passageway.

XXXX

The leader of the group finally entered the room and moved more slowly as he observed it, the same leader who had realised that the two filthy hedgehogs had gone upwards at that dead end in the alleyway. Everyone in the room froze as if, if they dared to move, they would be killed. He was the leader because he was the greatest tracker in all of Sharmar. Walking ever so slowly and tauntingly he reached the shackles screwed to the wall that had once held Sonic down. His fingers trailed over the inside of the metal cuffs. It still held the faint linger of warmth.

"They were here." He stated calmly as he spotted something almost hidden completely in the sand in the middle of the dark room. A small black quill. Holding it in-between his fingertips he smirked triumphantly. His men snickered with glee.

"We will find them...but I must say something," his calm voice suddenly did a full on U-turn and he turned to his men with burning rage. His men stopped snickering and cowered away.

"If you hadn't of run around the room like idiots I would have been able to find their footprints!" The leader roared with rage as he motioned to the completely unreadable messed up sand beneath them. Not even he, the best tracker in Sharmar, could track a set of footprints if over ten men had trampled all over them.


	14. The museum

The museum

"Well here we are...finally." Rouge stated the obvious after about two hours of getting lost; the rain had not ceased and only plummeted even harder down onto Knuckles' and Rouges' red umbrellas.

Rouge had finally gotten over her melancholy stage and was looking up at the huge building that was the museum, how she could have missed it she never knew. But she refused to fly in the rain and Knuckles couldn't fly anyway so she would have to carry him and just get wet and bothered for nothing. Although...it could have possibly been quicker if she had made the sacrifice.

The many winding streets of the town of Chun-nan made it difficult to find the entrance to the museum since it was like a maze, just when they had thought they were heading towards the huge building that was the museum in the centre of the town they hit a dead end and had to back track. Anyway, it didn't matter now since they had finally found the entrance that was a set of steps ascending to a pair of giant double oak doors.

Thunder rumbled in the mountains surrounding the town and the pink and white blossom trees littering their grey stone were blown around forcefully, their pink and white petals getting caught in the wind and being blown across the town. It seemed the little rain they had expected had transformed into a full blown storm.

"Let's get in before it starts to get worse!" Knuckles shouted to her over the wind as they pushed against the wind with their umbrellas and ascended the white marble steps. Rouge squinted as even with the umbrella stray water droplets soared into her face temporarily blinding her.

As her heels tapped against the marble steps she only started to realise how close to a page they were, this could be the first one to be found so far. She would communicate with Shadow later with the communicator she had given him to see how things were doing on their end. Tails had already told her over the communicator that he was closing in on Holoska which had taken him nearly a full twenty four ours to reach, Blaze and Silver would soon be busy too.

With Knuckles' unbelievable strength he hooked his mitt around the giant, circle, steel handle of one the oak doors and pulled it open with ease. The door creaked loudly as it swung open revealing a very well lit interior of the ground floor of the museum. Walking in they sheathed their umbrellas and hooked them on some wooden coat hangers which Rouge had noticed. As she hooked her umbrella up she noticed a map of the museum pinned to the wall, but it was in Chinese and so was unreadable. But the picture showed that the museum had five floors!

"Where do we start Hun? There are five floors and each floor holds quite a few rooms." Rouge asked with a seductive wink, Knuckles was used to this and just shrugged. They had all day; they might as well observe the place from bottom to top. _If we don't find it today we have tomorrow and the day after that...and the day after that.._. Knuckles shook his head to stop his thoughts wondering and trailing off.

"Well, I will go to the right side of the room and you go to the left, we will explore the glass cases in the middle last where we will meet." Rouge explained as she was already wondering off before Knuckles could object or argue. Besides, Rouge wanted to look around anyway out of interest.

Her heels continued to tap comfortingly against the green marbled floor, which when she looked at was shiny enough for her to see her reflection. The walls were pure white with purple dragons painted stylishly onto it. The room was huge in itself let alone the whole museum, as she gazed up at the very high ceiling in wonder she saw beautiful crystal chandeliers hanging firmly, their separate crystal pieces twinkling in the light and eliciting a bell sound as they gently touched each other. _I have got to get Knuckles to get me one of those! _Her thoughts squealed, before she managed to avert her gaze and compose herself. Beyond the chandeliers she looked in awe at the ceiling that had delicate and detailed paintings of ponds and water lilies, it seemed Chun-nan was obsessed with water lilies.

"We are here for the page, not chandelier shopping Batgirl." Knuckles called sarcastically from the other side of the room, a broadening grin on his face as he had watched Rouge for the past five minutes. The girl was not even giving a glance to the contents of the glass cases on her side of the room...she was too distracted by the chandeliers above. Rouge laughed embarrassedly with a blush before paying more attention at the cases beside her.

It seemed her side of the room was animals, realistic models of cheetahs, lions and tigers were in the current case she had stopped at. At first she was afraid they were real, but a note said `all models are made by our professional crafters of Chun-nan`. With this she gave a thankful sigh and continued her way along.

Next on her side as she walked happily along, her hands behind her back in a professional yet observing posture, there were fresh water fish. They looked so real that the scales almost looked slimy like the real things; she was impressed by the modelling detail as you could see each individual scale. This case was particularly large with what looked like hundreds of fish. _If only I had my camera with me, _her thoughts snickered as she physically grinned, also wondering why there wasn't any sea fish in the case.

Now onto the next case, which was absolutely huge since it touched the ceiling, contained birds. She marvelled at the models of birds in midflight, some were diving towards a makeshift pond; some were so big that they were near the top of the case. Birds like the albatross with its full wing span spread elegantly across the case. Rouge looked behind her and spread her bat wings to full wingspan; it was absolutely nothing compared to the giant birds'.

"Well, Rouge, it is obvious that the page is not going to be on that side." Knuckles smirked as he broke her away from her thoughts again as he had already finished examining his side of the room and was already on the middle cases.

Rouge pouted at him at his logic, which was a first may she add. They were searching for a page, not sight seeing which is what she was currently doing. Quickly, she jogged past the other cases holding insects, amphibians and reptiles so she could catch up. Only looking briefly longer at the models of bats in their case hanging upside down more than others_, how could bats sleep like that?...I certainly don't_, she mentally puzzled as she continued her quick jog. Knuckles was already waiting for her, having already searched the middle cases containing prehistoric animals like the sabre-toothed tiger and the mammoth.

They headed into another room on the same floor through a white marble archway that contained the dinosaur bone collections and fossils, what museum would be complete without the traditional dinosaur collection?

As the hours ticked by they completed four other rooms on the ground floor alone which contained Chinese culture, Chinese art, dragons and the flower room which was outstandingly stunning. The flower room was much smaller than the other rooms and had actual vines curling around the walls and ceiling, there was not a single piece of wall or ceiling visible to the naked eye. Delicate blue flowers that bloomed on the vines released their strong, sweet scent as they entered the room. In the very middle was a pond made out of blue marble, goldfish swam in-between the stems of the many breeds of water lilies as Rouge found this room particularly enchanting.

They completed the first floor and went up to the second. Those rooms contained mostly crystals and meteors; one meteor was literally bigger than a house and had black crystals sparkling in the cracks. Knuckles attempted to touch it but Rouge smacked his hand away furiously...she wanted to touch it first.

Next was the third floor which Rouge could scarcely believe her eyes. It was like an aquarium as they opened a wooden door to a glass circular tunnel, light reflections from the water danced around them as they saw actual alive sea animals. The tunnels were like a glass maze in themselves as each tunnel lead to other sea animals. Rouge loved the sharks that went over their heads and laughed joyfully, this place was amazing! Rouge cooed mostly at a golden seahorse that followed her on the other side of the glass and took particular interest in the bat.

Fourth floor was nothing special, just old war equipment and weapons. It was only then they realised the whole museum was deserted...which was when they started playing around. Knuckles eagerly grabbed a green army helmet and placed it on his head giving a salute, Rouge hissing for him to stop it whilst giggling herself as Knuckles marched around the room looking like a right idiot.

Nothing was seen of the page yet and both felt strangely tense as they went up the next flight of steps leading to the final floor. The fifth floor. A gloved hand tensed on the cold metal handle of the door as Rouge began to turn it. But it didn't budge.

"It's locked!" She said incredulously as she tried again, to no avail.

"You're kidding!" knuckles answered with wide eyes as he too attempted the handle. It was well and truly locked.

"I am sorry but that room is strictly forbidden." A voice with a heavy Chinese accent came from behind them making them jump and spin around to meet two security guards in uniform, both looking incredibly angry.

"We will have to ask you to leave the museum for... messing around with the artefacts here." The second guard continued, glaring particularly at Knuckles. Knuckles blushed; he didn't know he had been seen with the army helmet.

XXXX

"What now? I am willing to bet any rings that the page is on that floor!" knuckles spoke with irritation, his foot tapping away on the wet pavement. Both were now outside and by the looks of things both had spent a whole fun day in the museum, the sky was now clear of clouds and the sun was setting over the mountains.

"The thing I used to do best..." Rouge trailed off with a seductive grin, Knuckles looked at her with wide eyes of utter disbelief.

"You don't mean-"

"Yes, tonight...we break in and steal it Hun."


	15. Finding the page in Chun nan

**First ever attempt at a spy themed chapter...ONWARD!**

Finding the page in Chun-nan

Night had descended upon the peaceful town of Chun-nan as Rouge zipped up her black spy suit she had brought out from her bag. This along with her black wings would let her blend into the night. She had left her bag of spy gear from her last mission in Chun-nan, she had trusted Pan-Yo to look after it encase she came back, and she did come back.

Grabbing her small penknife from within the bag she concealed it in her black suit, next was the laser detector which she hooked around her right ear and allowed the red lens to slip in front of her blue iris. Up next was her special dart gun that Shadow had let her have, the darts put anyone to sleep for a minimum of an hour. She slipped this inside with a smirk. The thrill of the experience rushing back to her.

"Tell me why I ever gave this up?" Her voice asked in a seductively low tone as she admired herself in the mirror, the only thing not black was her face which would be hidden by her black hood soon enough. Knuckles was impressed with his fiancé, even though it was because she was once a thief. She had the air of someone knowing exactly what they were doing from a lifetime of experience. It made knuckles proud to be this extraordinary woman's husband to be.

"Be careful young Rouge," Pan-Yo muttered worriedly as she finished with the final touch being to add her small hand sized laser gun by hiding it within her long black boot. The suit wasn't stylish or shiny because Rouge knew from her beginning years as a thief that anything shiny can reflect light making you easy to spot.

The room was dark with only the moonlight of the gibbous moon shining in on them. Rouge posed in front of the large oval mirror in front of her, reliving the feel of being in such a situation.

"Is it really all that?" knuckles asked with a raised eyebrow, Rouge winked at him.

"You have no idea." Rouge answered with a hint of excitement in her voice, she turned to Knuckles with one final grin before pulling her black face mask up effectively hiding her lips and nose. Flicking her hood over her head concealing her ears, all you could see was her sapphire eyes and the red lens over one of them.

"Let's get going Hun."

XXXX

As silently as a ghost she flew above the town, black rope in hand as the gibbous moon shone down on her with all its beauty, it would be a full moon tomorrow. Knuckles was following on the ground, not wanting to distract or disturb Rouge when she was in her element.

Gliding she gave little to nothing disturbance to the air as she soared higher in order to reach the top of the museums roof. Landing on the stone roof without a sound she took a glance over the edge to see Knuckles hiding behind a building waiting for her signal. With organised practice she mimicked the sound of an owl calling and knuckles bolted across the street.

With a dive she plummeted towards the ground and with ease broke her fall with a silent flap of her wings. She grasped knuckles around the waist and flew back up to land perfectly on the roof; knuckles had never known someone could be so silent_. Especially Rouge_, he added as an after thought and smirked.

Rouge had motioned for him to kneel down as she took some sort of circular device from within her suit and placed it to the roofs stone tiles. Her hand was up in wanted silence as she flicked her hood off for a moment to place her ear against the device. Knuckles realised she was listening for people below.

Rouge remained like that for at least a minute before giving an affirmative nod. Placing her hood back over her ears with one hand the other went into her boot to grasp the laser gun, both hands moving simultaneously for extra speed. With experienced accuracy she started to slowly draw a good sized circle, the line being drawn orange and like molten lava as it pierced straight through. Sparks flew through the air as the circle was near completion.

"Get ready to grab it!" She ordered with no sarcasm or anything. Rouge was now all about business.

Knuckles came over and got his hands ready to grab the circle of rock about to fall. With a satisfying sound of rock rubbing against rock the circle was completed and the circle began to immediately fall. Not expecting this Knuckles almost missed it as he lunged in and just managed to grab it. Rouge also grabbing him with wide eyes in the hopes he wouldn't fall with it. Looking below Knuckles noticed an empty glass case. If he had let the rock circle fall that would have definitely shattered and alerted the security. With unexpected strength she pulled Knuckles and the cut rock circle out. The circular shape rock was then placed carefully on the roof by Knuckles who looked at her sheepishly. That was way too close.

Tying the black rope around her waist she handed the coil to knuckles, the plan had already been discussed before they had even set off. Rouge jumped into the hole with her wings folded and knuckles very slowly lowered her down. Down into the museums fifth floor.

The glass case that Knuckles had spotted below the hole was easily avoided by Rouge who did a stylish one handed hand stand with her wings outstretched to stop her full weight being forced onto the fragile glass. Her wings beat a couple of times in complete silence as the one handed hand stand turned directly into a flip in the air allowing her to land in a crouching position on the floor beside the case. It was easy for an experienced thief. She undid the rope.

Thinking ahead she set her laser gun to melt and not cut and tossed it up to Knuckles who stumbled to catch it.

"Put the rock circle back and reseal it. Set it back to cut by pressing the green button and when I knock you cut it open again." She hissed as she took off, the flat soles of her boots silent yet gripping the red, shiny, marble floor.

Knuckles rushed to the rock circle, grabbed it, put it into place and began to reseal the hole. Feeling terribly nervous since this was his first ever robbery, Rouge seemed so calm. He felt even more nervous sealing his only way to Rouge and Rouges' only way to him...but she knew best.

XXXX

It was pure darkness now that knuckles had completely sealed the hole and the evidence, but her overly brilliant bat eyes allowed her to see absolutely perfectly. Holding her dart gun in both her hands she ran with a crouch behind the many cases holding ancient books, the page had to be on this floor if the floors contents was anything to go by.

Peering cautiously around the case with the book she was hiding behind her oversensitive ears managed to pick the undeniable sound of faint footsteps coming from the corridor just across the room. The problem was the whole room was made of marble and the sound rebounded and Rouge couldn't focus on where the sound was originating from. Wanting to growl she had to guess.

Diving across to another case she rolled to a finish with expert skill as she readied her gun. Muscles stiff and at the ready when her sudden movement had obviously caught the eye of the security guard. _Perfect...that's what I want,_ she thought evilly as the sound of a gun being loaded behind the case she was hiding behind echoed throughout the room. Now she knew where he was. It was now or never!

She leapt spectacularly through the air. Wings spread to their fullest as she floated. As quick as lightning her dart was fired. It hit him directly in the arm. The man collapsed immediately. Rouge blew the smoke off her dart gun. Sonic and Shadow may be the fastest runners, but she had the fastest reflexes. The man had no time to scream.

Dragging the now fast asleep guard behind the case she had just hidden behind she took off once again, this time at a sprint so that no one else could come into this room and discover the sleeping guard which she had remembered to take the dart out of. Slipping the dart into her pocket with black gloved fingers she sped across the corridor. It seemed no other guards were around.

Still in a cautious crouch she ran from case to case. Looking at each ones contents whilst also hiding from prying eyes. However, she did notice cameras were placed in main parts of this room and she cursed quietly. Now more cautious than ever she bolted from behind her glass case which held yet another old looking book and hid behind one housing an old Chinese scroll. She peered around at the camera, it hadn't spotted her.

It was then she spotted it. All the way in another room. Through a white archway...the page from the Book of Moon sat in its own glass case. Rouge was sure it was it! With her night vision eyes she could see clearly in the darkness and swore she could make out the same strange language inked onto the parchment page as the Book of Moons pages. Silently congratulating herself she leapt from case to case. Her determination undeterred as she masterfully avoided the cameras with elegant and stylish moves.

_This is too easy...there has to be a catch_, she thought suspiciously as she slowed down near the archway. Activating her laser detector over her eye she saw the many red lines of alarm lasers immediately appear. She sighed, she knew it was too easy, but why was this one page more protected than any of the full books she saw? Maybe they knew it housed part of a powerful spell.

Pushing these thoughts to the back of her mind she focused solely on the mission as with elegant grace only a girl could muster she twisted and turned, flew and glided, cart wheeled and did hand stands to dodge the infernal red lines. Her flexible body doing things people would have thought impossible as she dodged with expert grace. Until she finally hit solid ground in front of the case.

"Finally! We have it!" She hissed in triumph as she took out her overly sharp penknife from within her suit. The glass was fragile and thin so it wouldn't take much.

Once again showing her skill as a thief she cut a perfect circle and smirked as she pushed it into the case. Her hand grasped the page with a true feeling of utter success. _Oh how I have missed this! _She thought as she carefully dragged the old page out and rolled it into a scroll shape before sliding it into her black boot. The adrenaline coursing through her veins.

She began to dodge the lasers again. Realising that there were actually no cameras watching the page as she did so. _How odd_, she mentally thought again as she was about to cartwheel over another laser. When the lasers suddenly disappeared. She froze.

A clapping sound filled her ears and her heart began to race as she whizzed around to where the sound was coming from. She thought her veins had frozen solid. There, on top of the now empty glass case where the page had been...sat the green hedgehog from her vision.

"You're very clever I must say...very graceful." The green hedgehog began, he stopped clapping as he raised his red sunglasses from his eyes to settle them on his head; his blue eyes chilled her to the core as he smirked evilly.

"Tell me where ya goin next and I will leave ya alone, how does that sound?" The green hedgehog threatened sarcastically as he advanced on the bat.

For every step the hedgehog took she took a step back. It was only when he got close enough to hit her that she growled in defiance and said;

"I am getting out of here with this Hun." Rouge smirked back in answer as she patted the boot where the page lay.

"Sorry...wrong answer." The green hedgehog snickered as he pulled out a red button. "Ya goin to jail, Batty, that's where ya goin!"

Rouge gasped for as soon as the button was pressed the place started flashing red. Sirens pierced her ears. Shouts of the guards could be heard. Turning to where the green hedgehog had been standing there was only an empty space. The guards turned the corner and spotted her. She was caught.

XXXX

Knuckles felt his heart race. He heard the sirens down below him in the museum. He looked over the edge of the roof. He saw the police cars of Chun-nan surround the building. With their flashing car lights and guns raised.

"Oh no."Knuckles felt a lump form in his throat. Then his heart stopped. He saw Rouge being dragged from the building and forced into one of the police cars. She had, indeed, been caught.

XXXX

Rouge was sitting on the uncomfortable hay bed of her jail cell still in her black spy suit, a heart filled with sorrow as she thought back to the green hedgehog. What had happened was so similar to what she had seen in her vision that it made her shudder in fear of her powers. She remembered the vision.

**In the darkness of the living room, in Sonics blue chair, sat a green hedgehog with one leg over the other. An evil smirk on his face.**

"**Tell me where ya goin next and I will leave ya alone, how does that sound?" The green hedgehog threatened as he advanced on the bat.**

**For every step the hedgehog took she took a step back. It was only when he got close enough to hit her that she shut her eyes and put her arms in the way as defence.**

Then she remembered what really happened, her hands bunched into fists at her sides and she glared at the floor with pure fury.

"**You're very clever I must say...very graceful." The green hedgehog began, he stopped clapping as he raised his red sunglasses from his eyes to settle them on his head; his blue eyes chilled her to the core as he smirked evilly.**

"**Tell me where ya goin next and I will leave ya alone, how does that sound?" The green hedgehog threatened sarcastically as he advanced on the bat.**

**For every step the hedgehog took she took a step back. It was only when he got close enough to hit her that she growled in defiance and said;**

"**I am getting out of here with this Hun." Rouge smirked back in answer as she patted the boot where the page lay.**

"**Sorry...wrong answer." The green hedgehog snickered as he pulled out a red button. "Ya goin to jail, Batty, that's where ya goin!"**

She had changed the future; she didn't flinch back in fear of being hit like her vision had showed her. No, she defied him and answered back...look where that led her. Rouge glanced around the stone cell, horrible slime trickled down the walls making her almost vomit. However, they hadn't taken her suit off...and the page still remained in her boot_. What kind of weak security do they have here? They didn't even search me for the page!_ She thought wildly.

"Pssst...Rouge."

Rouges' head shot up at the small grate at the top of her wall. Knuckles was there beckoning to her.

"KNUCKLES! Thank the Gods they didn't catch you too!" Rouge cried with relief as she flew up to the rusty steel grate and hovered there.

"What happened?" Knuckles whispered, concern and pity in his features at seeing his fiancé locked up in such a horrible place.

"I was doing great, I grabbed the page and was about to head back when a green hedgehog came and set the alarms off. I wasn't caught...I was given away!" The fury that fuelled Rouges voice made Knuckles pity her even more. This was obviously a blow to her pride

"Did the hedgehog get the page?" Knuckles asked and Rouge smirked with a seductive wink. Whilst still hovering she bent down and snuck the page out from within her boot. She then gave it to Knuckles along with her communicator. Knuckles looked shocked.

"Take it and go Hun...it's our only chance." Rouge tried to reason but Knuckles just shook his head in resistance.

"I will not leave you here! Not in a place like this!" Knuckles was going to say more but the unmistakable sound of footsteps heading to her cell came to their ears.

"You haven't got a choice." Rouge whispered, about to fly back down when Knuckles grasped her hand with a look so desperate and full of pure sympathy it made Rouges eyes water.

"I will come back for you...I love you." Knuckles felt those words were foreign on his tongue, he didn't say them often, but he truly meant them.

"I love you too darling...never forget it." With that Rouge forced her hand away from his mitt and Knuckles scurried away, the sounds of a creaky cell door opening and Rouge being dragged away made Knuckles cry for the first time he could remember. He needed to talk to Shadow and fast.

xXEND OF CHAPTERXx

AWWWWWWWWWW


	16. Expect the unexpected

Expect the unexpected

The dark stairs of the passageway seemed to continue spiralling downwards forever, or that's the way Sonic saw it as it felt like hours had past. The group of men in front of them hid the young girl clad in pink leading with the torch, the torch's' fiery embers bouncing and flickering off the walls lighting up the darkness.

Using his superior hearing Shadow listened ahead, their footsteps were seemingly too loud in the deep silence. Sonic, who was beside him, kept glaring at where the orange light originated from. It seemed his partner really hated this bossy eleven year old child.

"We have almost reached our destination; it will not be much longer." The girl called to them, the hedgehogs unable to see her over the men that towered her in size.

"I don't like this Shads," Sonic huffed as he crossed his arms in defiance. "How do we know that this little pink brat isn't leading us straight into a trap?"

"We do not," Shadow gave a whispered reply. "But at this moment it is our only hope."

Sonics' eyes softened and he uncrossed his arms, Shadow was right and he knew it. Shadow could feel his partners' distress, this tunnel felt like it was swallowing them up and Sonic hated small spaces. Placing a reassuring bandaged hand on his partners shoulder as comfort his ears suddenly picked up something up ahead. He dropped his hand quickly and swivelled his ears.

"What is it?" Sonic asked quietly with alarm, watching Shadows red eyes stare at the floor as he concentrated his chaos energy to his ears.

"Sounds like there is more than these people down here, I hear people busy at work coming from down the passage," Shadow answered sharply as the two continued to follow the small crowd of men and the young girl.

The man that had handled Shadow so viciously earlier kept turning his head to glance at the two with a scowl, Shadow returned every scowl back with a stronger glare of his own. What was this mans problem? The orange flames danced across the man's brown eyes filled with anger that burned as hot as the torch flames itself.

Suddenly the girl stopped, her crystal blue eyes staring at a wooden door in front of them which was revealed by the flames. The men stopped abruptly and Shadow had to force his arm out to stop Sonic bumping into them. The girl spun around, the elegant grace that she achieved usually impossible for someone so young. Her pink dress and headscarf flowing proudly through the air as gracefully as the flames fire burning her torch.

"We are here. You must swear to keep what we are about to show you an absolute secret." The girls' voice held so much confidence and power that even though the two hedgehogs couldn't see her face they just had to accept.

"We do." Shadow affirmed for them both as a smile unseen by them spread across the girl's young face.

With a click of her fingers a man beside her took a few steps towards the door and placed his strong hand on the rusty, circular, cold handle. A mighty screech reverberated through the passageway. The man paused for a second and the girl put the torch out, complete darkness enveloped them as the door was ever so slowly creaked open. The voices Shadow had heard before were now silent behind the door as they waited with what felt to him to be fear and anticipation.

A dim light fell through the small crack in the door that had been opened as the bluish light started to pierce the darkness. The door was then thrust fully open revealing the group to the others on the other side. The girl moved silently forward through the door as the men followed suit.

When Sonic and Shadow reached the door and walked into the secret place Sonic couldn't help but gasp and freeze in his tracks. The group were on a rough sand stone balcony overlooking what looked like an entire hidden city, below the floors of Sharmar.

Sonics eyes widened as waterfalls streamed down the walls around them, these waterfalls he noticed made large pools at the bottom that were sucked up large stone pipes. The pipes lead to the ceiling, which Sonic realised was how the small water pools in the streets of Sharmar were made, the water fell into a never ending cycle, the finishing and beginning being down here.

The plants here were extremely different, the pots were no longer filled with just leaves like on the surface but were filled with beautiful purple flowers that stigmas seemed to glow in the dim blue light. The dim blue light was coming from the thousands of candles lit with rare blue flames that were situated all over the ceiling on chandeliers, other than this the room was very dark...yet magical. As the water from the waterfalls continued to fall the blue lights reflected off them in a dazzling display.

People in this amazing hidden city looked up to them on the balcony, when they saw the young pink girl they all sighed in relief and fell to their knees. It was amazing to Shadow as when everyone noticed the young girl standing not even a metre away from him they all fell to their knees in high respect. It was like a wave of people as every single person in the city fell to the floor.

"Who are you?" Shadow asked again, unable to hold his curiosity any longer.

The young girl spun around, her crystal orbs meeting his crimson ones. She shut her eyes. Her pink dress flowed around her elegantly as she thrust her hand to her headscarf and pulled it off. The pink silk scarf floated through the air. It drifted over the edge of the balcony. Her long coal black hair shiny enough to reflect the blue lights of the room. Her long plait swaying through the air with the force. Her eyes shot open.

"My name is Amina, the princess of Sharmar."

XXXX

"What are you doing here?" Sonic asked, a bit shocked with the information. He was currently sitting at a giant stone table with Shadow beside him with his arms crossed and Amina in front. The group of men that had been with her were standing protectively behind the princess.

"Two years ago, my father sat rightfully on the throne. He was a great man...loyal to this country with fair rules." Amina began; strange mirth had appeared in her usually calm blue eyes. "Two years ago...my father was murdered."

"Please young princess...do not pain yourself." The man Shadow had come to hate spoke hesitantly from behind the girl seeing her grieving face. A slow hand up silenced him immediately.

"My uncle, a horrid man, took over the throne claiming my father's death to be an accident." Aminas' voice filled with rage and the hand in the air turned into a tight fist as her eyes blazed with fury. "I knew...just by looking into his eyes, those greedy eyes...that he did it. He killed my father in a desperate attempt for wealth and power over the country! It is me, not my uncle or his son...that is the rightful owner of the throne!"

"With the power he held he created a whole new era, a whole new set of rules. He forbade homosexuality, he forbade technology...he wanted me killed!" Amina continued with her rage overflowing. "He wanted me out of the way so no one could stand in his way, no one could take the throne from him. In my final desperate hours my bodyguard took me away to this place, my father built this hidden city as a desperate shelter in case of large sandstorms. Only my father, my bodyguard and I knew of this place at the time. My father was not against homosexuality so when he reigned homosexuals were free to live...but now they hide away in fear. I bring them here." The man that had handled Shadow roughly before snorted, it was then Shadow realised that he was her bodyguard!

"So everyone down here is gay. That explains why there are no other girls then." Sonic stated with a smirk as he sat back calmly in his chair, no longer alert for danger.

"I am going to overthrow my uncle and claim the throne that is rightfully mine; I will avenge my father and make Sharmar the fair country it used to be." At this outburst both Shadow and Sonic stiffened and widened their eyes.

"How?" Shadow asked with narrowed eyes, his low silky voice filling the room. "You are just one girl."

"I am not alone," Amina smiled warmly as she clasped her hands together on the cool stone table. "All the men I have saved and kept safe here are with me. Nearly every week new men are sent to death for homosexuality, every week I save them from this fate. In return they join my army of men. My army has now grown to over one thousand men. We now have enough to strike and have possible victory."

"What if you don't succeed?" Shadow asked calmly, his arms still crossed. The man that he now associated with as Amina's bodyguard growled and stalked to the table, his brown eyes blazing.

"You dare doubt our princess!" He roared as he leaned over the table to come face to face with Shadow. Shadow just narrowed his eyes with a cold glare. Even with this new information he still hated the man. After the rough treatment he gave him.

"Motiff...stop. These two are guests." Amina demanded in a sickly sweet voice. Motiff withdrew from the table with a snarl, stroking his small brown beard as he fell back to his position behind his princess.

"We will not fail, I will not allow it! Either we die with Sharmar released from my uncle or die trying." Amina spoke with determination. "These men were going to be sentenced to death, I hate the thought of them dying anyway from the attack...but at least they will die trying to get freedom."

Sonic suddenly sat bolt up right, his signature cocky smirk back on his face. He had hated this girl so much, but after everything she had told him he now saw her in a completely different light. In a way...Amina was just like him. She was desperate for freedom, freedom from hiding from her uncle, freedom for her kingdom to be. And she would try anything to get it.

"How did you know we were gay though?" Sonic asked as the thought hit him, Shadow also turned to Amina wanting an answer.

Every man in the room looked at each other. Every man burst into laughter. Even Motiff sniggered which Shadow found extremely frustrating. Sonic looked confused as the room echoed with the laughs.

"You mean you do not know?" Motiff mocked with a gruff grin. "You are wearing it as clear as day!"  
"Wearing it-" Sonic froze as his head slowly looked down at the emerald fox head necklace dangling proudly from his neck. Shadow froze...could it be?

"You guys are wearing the desert fox head necklaces, each one bearing a stone of the colour almost identical to each of your eyes. This represents that you have given yourselves to each other. That you are lovers." Amina explained, staring at the shocked expressions on the two hedgehogs faces.

"So...you mean...all this time...we have been basically wearing a signpost saying `we're gay come and arrest us now` written clearly on it." Sonics shock turned into pure anger, his pupils turning into slits as he glared holes at the black hedgehog who had given it to him. Shadow avoided his lovers' eyes...he hadn't known.

"We need your help," Shadow told her; in attempt to distract himself from his lovers death glare. "We are looking for a page from a magical book called the Book of Moon. The page is supposed to be in this desert, do you know where it is?"

Everything froze. Everyone froze. The atmosphere so cold and thick it could choke them. Aminas eyes widened in fear. Shadow suddenly gasped and clutched his head, his eyes shutting tightly to fight off the agony. Sonics anger turned to concern as he watched his lover fight off another searing headache.

"The thing you seek is cursed." Aminas' breath hitched, the men behind her made the sign to ward off evil. "It lies deep within the desert surrounding Sharmar, deep in the Temple of Sacrifice."

More gasps and moans of grief came from the men as they huddled together. Aminas eyes were still wide...almost as if they were frozen that way. Her breathing irregular and forced. Shadow didn't notice, the strange sensation of his body slipping away from him was all he could feel from the headache.

"You must head east from the entrance to the city, keep running east until you reach the `Suns eye`. Beneath the eye, buried beneath centuries of sand...you will find the buried temple." Amina instructed, her blue eyes filled with fear stemming from some unknown origin.

Shadow felt his headache subside, this one was much stronger than the others and he felt like he could have passed out. He raised his ruby eyes to Sonics' worried green ones, all traces of anger gone from his lovers' eyes.

"We will take you out of here, maybe you can get rid of the curse that is that retched page." Motiff whispered, his own brown eyes wide but his voice was much more timid compared to the gruff one he held earlier. Clearly...this page held fear amongst the people here.

"It is almost dawn; the gibbous moon will disappear to reveal the hot sun. I suggest you stay here for the day and leave at night when it is cooler in the desert. My uncles' guards will still be searching for you...you are safer here." Amina suggested. Motiff nodded in complete agreement with his princess.

Suddenly a ring sound filled the air making everyone freeze again. Shadow sighed and reached his hand into his head quills to grab his communicator Rouge had given him. Sure enough Rouges' name was on the screen.

"When did you get that?" Sonic asked looking puzzled.

"Before we left for Sharmar, now be quiet I am going to talk." Shadow demanded sternly as he switched the small machine on.

"What is up Rouge?" Shadow sighed and sat back in his chair, but immediately sat up right again when it was Knuckles' voice that reached his ears.

"Shadow, I have good news and bad news." Knuckles spoke over the line, Amina and her men watched in awe and silence. Shadow narrowed his eyes at the possibility of bad news.

"What is the good news?" Shadow turned to look at Sonics also concerned face.

"I have got the page from Chun-nan." Knuckles began; a pause filled the line as he almost didn't dare to say the bad news.

"And the bad news?" Shadow goaded him on.

"...We had to steal it." Knuckles took a deep breath. "Rouge has been arrested."

Shadow entirely froze at that point. His hand trembled. _Rouge...arrested!_ Was the only thought swirling in his mind. It clouded his judgement. Took over everything else. His frozen hand almost dropped the communicator. Knuckles' `hellos` from the other side unheard in his black ears.

Sonic stood up silently and gently pried the communicator from his partners' fingers. Sonic knew how much Rouge meant to Shadow. Shadow didn't hear Sonic talking to Knuckles, the only thought clouding his senses was, _Rouge...arrested._

xXEND OF CHAPTERXx

I bet you didn't see the necklace thing coming did ya! Hahahaha I told you there would be shockers in this story...Well at least I hope it was


	17. Holoska

Holoska

Scourge laughed joyfully as he re-entered the spirit temple deep within the depths of the swamp, his laughter immediately ticking off Mephiles who was sitting on the alter feeling terribly useless, having no body and the spell that that damn echidna girl had casted was forcing him to remain where he was. If Mephiles had a mouth he would be smirking evilly as Scourge entered the room with his own evil smirk, at least he had someone to do his dirty work.

"Got one down!" Scourge chimed triumphantly as he grabbed his small mirror from the floor and used it to see the discouraged and imprisoned Rouge.

"The plan has already been set into motion then." It was more of a statement rather than a question as Mephiles stared at his transparent hands, hating the fact it reminded him of his shredded body beneath the traitors' house.

"Yep, the ball has been pushed and is rolling!" Scourge lowered his red sunglasses so that his blue eyes sparkled confidently over their rim. "And it won't stop till it reaches the bottom of the hill."

"Or it hits something on the way down. In other words, something comes up that we don't expect and stops the rolling ball." Mephiles began to play Scourges' metaphoric little game.

"Na-ah, the obstacle will just be a little bump that slows it down a little, but it won't stop it." Scourge chuckled and crossed his arms, staring competitively at his ghostly partner as he straightened his back.

"Or it causes the ball to roll off track." Mephiles cocked a purplish eyebrow and crossed his own spirit arms, his sickly green eyes meeting the blue ones peering over the rim of their owners' sunglasses.

"Then I will go push the ball back on track, honestly ya are so negative." Scourge mocked annoyance and put a hand on his head in a pretend fainting manner, his acting reminding anyone of a cocky blue hedgehog.

Mephiles turned away with an evil laugh. "Let us hope you have the strength to push the ball back on track."

"Don't ya start doubting me. Blue is in for trouble." Scourge laughed himself; Mephiles had never played one of his games for this long without exploding with irritation. Scourge pretended to peer at an invisible watch on his wrist with a smirk and gave an approving whistle.

"Nice, ya have down this for, I don't know, just about two min's. Let's go for-"

"Don't push it." Mephiles' dead-pan voice echoed off the temples stone walls along with Scourges' laughter.

"What we are doing is serious, you need to stop playing pathetic games and get back on track yourself." Mephiles' voice was suddenly icy cold and you could literally feel the atmosphere swerve from fun to tense in seconds.

Scourge gave a frown and stroked the rim of his mirror with a gloved finger. The purple embers of the torches flickered with an almost physical cold breeze. The finger brushed over a black stone. Silence enveloped the pair. Blue met green. Eye met eye.

"I know..." Scourge stated, his voice no longer holding the cocky edge to it. A smirk suddenly crept onto his lips. "But ya the one that played along."

Mephiles gave an exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes to the ceiling; _remind me why he is here..._

XXXX

The sun was rising slowly into the sky hidden behind the grey forbidding clouds of a snow storm. Thunder rumbled unnervingly in the distance as a giant plane soared across the skies carrying its two remaining passengers to the small village of Holoska.

Looking out of the cock pit Tails could only see white for as far as the eye could see and in a sense he found it disorientating and almost blinding, Silver was looking out of his own circular window in the main room and was feeling the exact same horrible sensation in the pit of his stomach.

The snow was currently falling like a blizzard, enveloping the plane in its white grip. Silver gave a small sigh as he nibbled another of his delicious chocolate biscuits, his teeth biting into it with a happy crunch as crumbs trickled to the floor. Occasionally, he would break a tiny chunk off and hand it with a reassuring smile to the black and brown furry arms casually hanging over the edge of his light blue coat pocket. The furry arms would silently take the offered food and slink back away into the pocket, only to re-emerge with a silent want for more. Missy would honestly eat anything.

"Ok guys, we are finally here." Tails' voice boomed over the intercom and Blaze gave a tired sigh. She sat up in her purple sofa and stretched, smiling at the satisfying pop of her joints and gave a lazy yawn. Her purple tail swayed a little with the stretch as she stood up and straightened her own dark purple coat, forcing the creases out and pinching at the white fur lining of her sleeves to make herself presentable. Silver watched her with awe and could have sworn he could hear the tarantula in his pocket teasing him in spider language.

"You're a photographer, take a picture, it will last longer." Silver jumped as Blazes' face was suddenly right in front of his, in the small amount of time he had been day dreaming she had noticed and waltzed over to disturb him.

"I-I haven't got my camera!" Silver burst out, a small pink blush plastering his cheeks and Blaze palm smacked her forehead. Silver could have sworn he had seen Missy do exactly the same thing as Blaze with a spider leg in his pocket.

"You are so naive." Blaze closed her eyes for a moment and shrugged.

Silvers eyes shone with adoration as Blaze held her hand out to him. With a nervous laugh and one hand sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck he clutched her hand and allowed her to pull him up from his seat. Both suddenly gasped and stumbled as the plane suddenly hit the ground with more force than they expected. The uneven terrain of the snowy wasteland making the plane shake furiously as it attempted to land.

Tails struggled to keep the plane straight. Struggled as he refused the plane to crash. He pulled on the steering wheel of the plane with all his might. Sweat dripped from his brow. The plane bounced unevenly from the ground. He growled and screwed his eyes shut. There was a tremendous thud...then silence.

XXXX  
"What the hell was that!" Blaze cried out angrily as she found herself with her eyes closed and on her back on the blue carpeted floor. A groan reached her ears and she opened her eyelids slowly. She would have screamed, which would have been very undignified, except the fact she was too shocked with Silver literally on top of her. He groaned and rubbed his head, obviously oblivious to the fact he was currently straddling poor Blaze who was almost as red as Knuckles at this point.

With a yelp Silver was flung off as Blaze quickly spun to the side, her purple tail bushed up with embarrassment.

"Blaze? What's wro-"

"DON'T SAY ANYTHING!" Blaze roared uncontrollably as she stood up and whipped herself away from him in order to hide the undoubtedly rose red blush. Silver only cocked his head to the side innocently. Blaze took deep breaths and thought, _my lord he is too innocent! Too naive I say! _

Missy had obviously seen the whole thing with black beady eyes from the pocket and promised herself she would probe him about it later.

XXXX

"No, no, no, NO!" Tails screamed uncharacteristically like himself as he bounced from one foot to the other in the snow and motioned to Blaze and Silver the front of the plane now buried deep within a large dune of snow. Bouncing not only from his rage but also from the ice cold snow falling and landing on his bare yellow fur. His two tails were flicking quickly and simultaneously.

"Ok, calm down Tails, if Sonic were here he would say `Hey now, chill buddy. `" Tails thought aloud and turned back to his two confused passengers. "Sorry about that, after all the work I went through to sort this mechanical baby out I sort of exploded a bit."

"Don't worry about it; I know what it is like to feel that way."Blaze gave a smile and shook her head, a feminine gloved hand up in a stop sign. Thinking about when she had worked hard on her news story and had lost it all to save Shadow before...but she would never regret it. She now had new friends and went on adventures she never thought would happen. Silver was actually rocking on the balls of his feet next to her and smiling as well, knowing exactly what Blaze was thinking of at the moment.

"Well, I better get started on this; you guys go on and start your search for that page. Good luck." Tails waved cheerfully, the act awakening to the other two the fact he was only an eight year old... an eight year old genius.

Tikal suddenly came jumping from the planes entrance looking genuinely worried and concerned as she gazed up at the plane. Blaze and Silver blinked in unison, they had forgotten Tikal was on the plane with them.

"Where have you been? I haven't seen you for the entire trip." Silver asked kindly as Tikal tripped in the snow and Silver caught her. Blaze thought she felt her fire burn inside her, the fire of jealously. She clenched her fists by her sides and felt her eye twitch.

"I have been meditating, it helps with my magic." Tikal answered as the blue soul orb of Sonics fathers' soul came floating above her head. "I will help you Tails. You two go, we will be fine."

"Are you s-" but before Silver could finish he felt Blaze grasp his arm and start pulling him away.

"Come on! We have a duty to fore fill." Blaze stopped dead in her tracks at how...like her old self that sounded. She quickly composed herself at Silvers questioning looks and kept moving. No...She would never go back there.

"Are you alright?" The pure concern in Silvers voice warmed her usually cold heart. Nodding she refused to meet Silvers worried topaz eyes. _No...No one will ever know._

Letting go of his unresisting arm she allowed him to walk next to her instead of dragging him along, the grey hedgehog glanced around him through the now slowly falling snow. It seemed the blizzard had settled for now. He stuck his tongue out and caught a falling snow flake, smiling broadly at his own childish antics. Unbeknownst to him, Blaze was also smiling at him as she continued her march in front.

_What is this...strange white stuff?_ Missy thought curiously, having never before set her black spider eyes on snow. She stuck her spider head out of the pocket and spotted a snow flake that had landed on Silvers coat. Because she was a tarantula it looked much bigger than it really was, to Silver this flake was no bigger than his little fingernail. _Blaze had mentioned it was snow._

To her it was quite big and because of this she could see all the small constructions of the pretty, shiny snow, the small fragile details, and the sheer beauty from something so small. It reminded her of Silver and Blazes relationship, the small details that keep their relationship together are the details that keep the snow flake together. It is small yet beautiful. Suddenly the snow flake melted and if it was possible Missy would have sweat dropped. _Yes, their relationship easily disappears too just like that snow flake._ Then another snow flake landed on Silvers coat, _And yes, the relationship reappears as quickly as it went, _Missy's train of thought continued like this for a while.

They kept on walking for at least ten minutes and the snow was falling in such small quantities that you wouldn't know that it was actually snowing at all. In the distance a small plume of grey smoke was rising over the horizon, signalling that the snow village was close.

**END OF CHAPTER  
Sorry it has been so long, been incredibly busy. I will try to get as much done as possible whilst I have this half term holiday. I haven't wrote in a while so I am not sure if this is up to standard with the rest. I hope it's alright. Favourite bit for me is Scourges' and Mephiles' little game at the beginning, I hope you understood it. **

**xXSonicgirl582Xx**


	18. Starting in Holoska

Starting in Holoska

"Hey! Hey! Over here!" A man wearing a huge brown furry coat was waving his arms in the air towards the two, his hands covered in large black mitts. His feet were shielded from the snow and cold by polar bear furred boots and the hood covering his head made it impossible to see the mans face.

Blaze narrowed her eyes suspiciously and stopped in her tracks where as Silver was literally running to the stranger with open innocent arms.

"Hello! Are you from the village? We would like to go there please." Silver slowed down and approached the man who had a cheerful smile on his face.

"Of course! Of course! You are welcome to come," The man bellowed as he looked at the smiling grey hedgehog in front of him. "We saw your plane crash."

Getting over her initial suspicion and caution Blaze also came towards him, however she kept a warmth within her palms in case she had to quickly conjure her flames. For some reason...something felt a little odd and being a feline helped her to sense these sorts of things. She took a protective step in front of Silver automatically, her eyes never leaving the man standing before her. Silver did not even notice her strange behaviour.

"Well! Well! Who are you little lady?" The man put his hands on his hips and bent over a little to make eye contact with her fairly easy. Which, for Blaze, was not a problem at the moment.

"Fine, thank you." Blaze answered quickly as she kept her suspicion from her voice and her anger at bay in order for him not to detect it.

"Come now! Come now!" The man said cheerfully and started to lead the way, his boots crunching in the snow. Silver was about to happily follow when a sharp pull on his arm forced him back.

"Be on your guard...I sense something very wrong here." Blaze told him sternly, a look in her eyes that Silver had never seen before made them look sharp and alert. Silver could only nod slowly and the grip on his arm loosened and finally let go.

Blaze took the lead in front of Silver and followed the man to the snow village, their footprints left in the snow behind them.

XXXX

The smell of cooking fish filled their delicate noses as the village came closer, the smell delicious and smoky making Blazes mouth water. However she snapped herself out of it quickly as they came to an icy slop that curved down into the village, this meant the village was in some sort of hole and was protected from the brutal blizzards that would howl above them. She could already feel the difference as she stepped down the curved slope since the freezing wind suddenly disappeared, blocked out by the ice walls.

Children were playing as they ran between the igloos and when the man was spotted everyone stopped what they were doing and ran towards them. Even the adults stopped work in order to greet the man back.

"Papa! Papa!" A young boy of about six cried, running towards him with what looked like a stick with a piece of string tied to it, reminding Blaze of a fishing rod.

The man picked the boy up with amazing ease and put him on his shoulders, the boy squealed happily as they continued down the slope and reached the floor of the village. Silver scooted over to Blaze.

"Are you sure there is something wrong? They look like normal people to me." Silver asked as he watched the scene between father and son play. Blaze was not convinced.

"Please! Please! Come join us by the fire and get warm, we have some fresh fish in. Mohn. It is smoked and strangely spicy but you are welcome to eat with us," the man asked hopefully...too hopefully.

"Well-"

"Yes we will stay, I'm starving." Silver interrupted her, jumping for joy and running on ahead of where Blaze stood completely still. _Something is honestly not right about this..._ She thought and her eyes darted around alarmingly at the very few who lived in this village. _They seem...too kind, as if they're luring us._

"Come on Blaze!" Silver called to her from his position near the fire.

Blaze froze, looking deep into the large flames of the cooking fire. If she got too close her powers would kick in automatically and control it. She didn't feel like risking her powers here in front of these people. So she declined.

"No Silver I'm fine-"

"Please! Please! Join us Blaze." The man said the name he had learned from the grey hedgehog, his voice was almost pleading which helped to push her suspicion and caution even further.

"I already told you I am fine," She tried to convince the man as nicely as possible but her anger was starting to bubble over at his insistence.

"Come now!" Suddenly Blazes eyes widened and she stiffened as she felt female arms encircle her. With alarm she struggled but the woman held firm. The woman chuckled as she slowly started to walk with her towards the fire. "It is rude to deny a request from your host."

"LET ME GO!" Blaze screamed desperately and struggled relentlessly in the woman's strangely unbreakable grip. Feeling Blazes distress Silver started to get alarmed and stood up from around the fire, leaving his smoked mohn alone.

"Let her go! She doesn't want to!" Silver demanded furiously, but the woman still kept coming.

Blaze felt fear freezing her veins. The panic freezing her heart. The flames were getting closer. The woman would not let go. Silver was now frightened as well and came rushing over. Her powers were uncontrollable near burning embers. If she got too close, it would be too late. They would discover her power.

"I order you to let her go!" Blaze had never heard Silver so angry. The woman froze in her tracks.

It then hit Blaze as hard as a brick. The woman had not stopped at all. Rather Silver was using his telekinesis to stop her moving. The woman cried in terror and tried to move. Silver was not impressed and only needed a little bit of mental energy to hold her firm.

"Let me go!" the woman ordered. Silver smirked.

"If I do...you must immediately release Blaze," Silver instructed.

"Yes! Yes! I swear!" The woman was now crying in fear and Silvers innocent heart began to crack, he had never intended to terrify the woman. He gently let go of his power.

Blaze had remained completely still this whole time, Silver would really go to such lengths as to threaten someone to help her. The whole village was silent and staring at the scene. Waiting to see what would happen. Waiting for the woman to let go. A smirk went across the woman's lips. Silver felt disturbed as the woman spoke.

"Fine...have her," Then without warning she threw Blaze towards the flames. Silver didn't have enough time. Blaze hit the snow with a cry. Rolling further towards the fire. The flames drew towards her. Trying to touch her.

"She is the one!" The villagers all gasped in excitement.

Silver came running to her as the flames continued to tilt towards Blazes body laying in the snow not even a metre away. Even he had to admit, it was amazing seeing the flames bend towards her. Like a hidden wind was blowing it to her.

"Blaze?" Silver whispered shaking her shoulders gently, unlike when Blaze would shake his shoulders vigorously. He didn't notice the villagers encircling them. Creeping closer.

"Blaze please," Silver shook them a bit more firmly. Her eyes remained closed. The villagers surrounded them. Arms at the ready. "BLAZE!"

Blazes eyes suddenly shot open. Her black pupils slits. Her claws extracted. Faster than even Sonic himself she sprung up. Silver was forced away. The villagers rushed back in fear. There she stood. As proud as the flames themselves. The small fire burst behind her. Silver put his arm up protectively. The flames encircled her. The flames taking shape. A dragon was flying around her magnificently. Protecting Silver. Roaring in anger. Her own anger.

"YOU WILL NOT COME CLOSER!" Her voice was unnatural. Not hers. The flames. The flames were speaking. Shouting from within her. Her powers only way of speaking. Through her own rage.

The snow melted. The villagers screamed. The hotness of the flames enveloping all. Enveloping and protecting Silver. The flames spiralled around her. Her hair flying around wildly. Her eyes red. Her fangs bared. This is the creature that she must control. Live with. Feel with. Breathe with...the creature of uncontrollable rage.

The dragon soared. Roared. Encircled around her. The only barrier between her and the petrified villagers. The only barrier keeping Silver from her. Silver forced himself onto his knees. The strong hot gale almost too much. He squinted through the bright flames. He needed to stand.

Trembling he rose. A feral growl was heard. Blaze forced him down. But he forced himself back up. His quills flew around rapidly. His arm over his eyes. He stared at the dragons flaming wings. Flaming body. Flaming eyes. Then at Blaze. Her coat burned away. Her cloak left. Whipping around her like the spiralling flames. Her eyes. All he saw was anger. He knew there was much much more. He forced himself to take a step. The fire dragon roared.

No villager dared move closer. But Silver did. Another step. Then another. Another feral growl. Another heat wave. Yet he kept going. _You are my friend Blaze..._he thought. Staring at her right in the eyes. Another step. Another heat wave. Her powers were trying to push him back. _And no matter what you say..._He forced himself through the flames. Through the heat. Another step. Blazes hands suddenly gripped his arms. Sharp claws dug through his coat. Dug into his skin. _And no matter how much you hurt me..._the dragon screeched in fury. Blazes slits focused on him. Silver leaned into her. Grabbed her around the waist_...I will always love you._

Everything froze. The heat gale stopped. The dragon stopped. The villagers didn't dare move. The flames continued to spiral. Yet they were no longer hot. Blazes claws loosened their grip. Then retracted. Her fangs shrunk. Her pupils grew.

"...Silver?..." came a whisper. Silver looked up. That was the voice he knew. There were the beautiful topaz eyes he knew...the Blaze he knew.

"...You would still hold me...after what you have seen?" Blazes voice trembled. The fire dragon encircling them froze still. Still blazing. Yet it just seemed to watch...to listen.

"I would always hold you. To stop you falling...to stop you losing yourself. I understand now...why you try to control your temper with breaking things. You try to calm the rage, calm the flames inside of you."

The fire dragon watched Silver, its red eyes solely on him. The villagers stood and watched in amazement. Blazes now yellow eyes also focused on him. Her powers and herself listening...together.

"That is why I still hold you Blaze. You are so strong...to keep this up for so long. To keep the flames of rage at bay. I see past this, I have _always_ seen past this. That is why I have always been here for you...and I always will be."

Silver felt a tear drip from Blazes cheek and onto his head from where he stood hugging her. The dragon made of flames seemed to nod in understanding, knowing that someone had finally learned to see past what others could not.

Blaze suddenly gasped. The fire dragon raced around them. Yet showed no signs of danger. Blazes chest started to glow as the flaming dragon spiralled into her chest and into her heart. She started to fall from exhaustion...but Silver caught her.

Both dropped panting to the ground, both exhausted from the experience. The ground was no longer snow or ice, but solid grey stone from when the burning hot flames had melted it. Blaze was now her normal self again, slumped up against Silver for support.

"You are so...naive." Blaze managed to say and rested her head against Silvers shoulder covered in his light blue coat; she shivered since her coat had burned up leaving only her fire-proof cloak to protect her from the cold. Then she passed out. _Thank you..._

"She is the one! The girl we must sacrifice!"

Silver felt his insides freeze and sharply looked up at the villagers now starting to advance on them again.

"Why?" Silver demanded answers and clutched said cat closer to his chest protectively.

"The prophecy. The one with the fire powers should be sacrificed to bring never ending warmth to this land. The snow and ice will go to be replaced by rivers and trees. We will have summer and spring. Not an eternal winter." The man that had led them here stated and kept slowly advancing on them.

"That's impossible! You're insane!" Silver picked Blaze up bridal style, luckily still unconscious and couldn't hear what these mad people were saying about her. Checking his pocket to see if Missy was still alright he used his telekinesis to freeze everybody in place before bolting for it. He was going to get Blaze as far away from them as possible.

**END OF CHAPTER**

**That was the most dramatic and emotional scene I have ever written, but you are the judge**


	19. When life is on the line

**WARNING: Longest chapter I have ever written!**

When life is on the line

Silver ran out of the snow village as fast as he could with Blazes comforting weight in his arms, the black snow cloud above them was starting to release its snow and it was falling harder and harder by the minute. Cradling her to his chest he could feel her shiver from the cold, being knocked out must mean that her fire powers were also put out of commission for a while.

Behind him the cries of the chasing villagers could be heard since they were now way out of range of his telekinesis and were starting to come after them. These guys were obviously desperate.

He kept on running under ice archways and dodging natural ice made pillars until he was suddenly into the wide open, white, waste land of Holoska. It was like a never ending white desert for as far as the eye could see and looked deadly and treacherous. Silver glanced behind him as the shouts got closer. He turned back to forbidding land and started moving. _Anywhere is better than here_, he thought wildly, staring into the unconscious beautiful face of Blaze.

Trudging through the thick snow he forced himself onward with Blaze in hand.

XXXX

Hours seemed to pass; the snow kept getting deeper...Blaze remained unconscious. The blizzard was so thick and strong that Silver had to squint in order to protect his eyes from what now felt like sharp shards of glass instead of snow. The coldness seemed to sting his face and the brutal gale howled against him, as if the snowy waste land was attempting to ward him off, warning him to turn back. However he stayed firm and pushed himself forward, knowing the village was far behind by now but the villagers could still be after them...hunting them down.

This caused a spark to come to life in his heart, he couldn't go back, he couldn't let them have her. With a growl he pushed through the wind and held Blaze close, her skin as cold as ice against his cheeks. Suddenly he spotted what could possibly be a shelter from the cold in the distance.

"Come on Blaze...just a little further," it was more of a reassurance for him rather than her.

Step by step, breath by frozen breath, he made his way to the snowy bulge. When he got closer he decided it looked like an ocean wave suddenly frozen solid, it was curved making the inside hollow and they could just be able to squeeze in. Hopefully it would protect them from the blizzard, if even for a short while.

He got on his knees making him hiss as the snow hit them and crawled with Blaze into the hollow of the ice wave. The wind immediately vanished and Silver sighed in relief as he lent up against the curved ice wall and placed Blaze next to him. He stared out of the circular entrance to the small shelter and watched the snow plummet to the ground in a never ending mist.

Wiping his quills and coat of snow to make sure it didn't melt and soak through he did the same to Blaze, not wanting her fur to get damp and let her catch a cold or worse. Missy came out of his pocket and crawled to her special spot on Silvers shoulder, staring at Blaze before she analysed her surroundings like all spiders do.

"What do we do Missy?" Silver talked to her as he clutched his knees to his chest. "I am not as good at these sorts of things as Blaze is."

Missy cocked her head to the side in wonder, sensing Silvers fear and worry from deep within him. Animals like her can sense these sorts of things. She remembered when she was afraid, all alone in that draw on the plane so long ago. Silver had saved her life, had become her companion. They had become a team ever since.

Missy fidgeted a little on his shoulder, her eight legs moving simultaneously in order to get comfortable. Her eight beady eyes allowing her to see the full 360 degrees looked at every angle of the walls at once. Even though she had grown much more confident around Silver a part of her was still the timid tarantula that was on the plane, her spider instincts still made her extra cautious. An animal is an animal after all and animals trust their born with instincts to guide them.

She shyly peered up at Silver who looked like a giant to her and tapped his chin with one furry spider leg. He turned to her and once gain she cocked her head to the side; she knew that Silver was learning how spiders communicated. Her friend smiled and with one gloved finger stroked her body.

"I know, I know, I shouldn't worry. Blaze is strong for a girl," Was Silvers answer to Missy's gesture. "OWW"

Silver suddenly yelped as he felt something, or someone, pinch his hand that had been left limp at his side. He turned sharply to see Blaze with one eye open and a feline grin spread across her face, her tail was swaying casually from side to side. She was leaning on one elbow with the hand on her chin.

"Care to repeat that Silver." Blaze asked, grinning like a Cheshire-cat.

Silver stammered and stuttered with a pink blush on his cheeks, knowing that if he did repeat it he would be in a lot of trouble. Blaze gave a sigh and closed her eye again, breathing deeply in order to get some energy back from her little...explosion earlier. That made her eyes shot back open and she turned to the still flustered Silver with a frown.

"Are you sure you are alright?" Blaze asked softly, avoiding Silvers eyes when he attempted to meet them with his own.

"I should be asking you the same thing, you had me worried." Silver replied calmly. Blaze looked completely away.

"I am physically fine, but emotionally...I feel distraught. What you said before...did you mean it?" Blaze whispered, as if talking too loud would bring her powers mind back to the surface.

Her powers could honestly be classed as alive, it could hear and had a mind of its own when her rage became too much. It is like...someone else living inside of you. She quickly glanced at Missy; _Silver knows this feeling when he is inside her mind. _

"I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it," Silver began with a sigh. "I will always be here for you; I have learned to adjust to your ways. That is why I can deal with the things you literally throw at me."

Blaze grinned at the `literally` part since she couldn't count how many times she had thrown a china plate at Silver, or anything for that matter. Silver had gotten plastic plates since they are not as easily broken after all the china ones had disappeared without a trace. _I wonder where they went;_ she mentally laughed and finally made eye contact with Silver.

Missy watched the two curiously as the once tense atmosphere evaporated. She relaxed her muscles in her eight legs that she had tensed and laid down on Silvers shoulder. They remained like that for quite a while before Blaze suddenly sat up-right, her large feline ears swivelling as she tried to detect something.

"What's wrong?" Silver whispered with alarm.

"Shh! Someone is coming!" She hushed him urgently.

All remained still. All silent apart from the howling wind. Muscles were tensed. Breaths were held. A crunching sound was heard. It was not far away...and it was coming closer. Missy crawled into his pocket. The crunching got closer and closer. Blaze and Silver put their hands over their mouths. To stop the sound of their breathing. The crunching got louder. Closer. A shadow could be seen. A blurry figure through the ice wall.

"They can't be far!" the male figure gasped through his laboured breathes. The sound to Blaze and Silver was muffled through the wall.

The man was right there! Right outside the wall! Leaning towards it. To see if there was anything there. Silvers and Blazes eyes widened. They unintentionally grabbed each others shoulders. Eyes never leaving the blurry figure. The man took a slow step. Then another. Making his way towards the entrance.

The crunching got louder. Got closer to the entrance. The tip of a boot was seen. The white fur so close they could touch it. Then another step. His other foot was seen. The man remained still. Slowly lowering himself. Down onto his knees! About to duck his head! About to peek in!

"Hey! Hey!" Came a far away call. The man's chin could be seen! A little lower and they would be done for! They didn't dare breathe.

"What?" the man shouted back, not moving at all. The shout making the two jump.

"Come over here! We think they went this way!" The other replied, screaming over the roaring blizzard.

"..." The man didn't move. Remaining in his position. The tension was almost too much. "...fine."

The man stood up abruptly. The boots disappeared. The crunching got quieter and quieter. Further and further away. The blurry figure got smaller and vanished. Nothing could be seen through the ice wall. Both Blaze and Silver remained frozen, before both let go of the breaths they were holding and gasped.

"My lord that was way too close," Blaze only just managed to gasp out whilst gulping down air.

"We should get going, in case they come back," Silver added breathily. Blaze only nodded in agreement.

XXXX

Blazes' footsteps were snowless as her fire powers melted the snow beneath her feet, whereas Silvers' boots crunched underfoot and snow clung to the leather making the cold seep through the material, making his feet feel heavy and frozen. Wiggling his toes reassured him they were still there as they were unbelievably numb.

The blizzard was swallowing them into its frozen jaws as the usually soft snow whipped at there faces like flying needles. All you could see was white for as far as the eye could see. Shivering he looked at Blaze stalking in front, completely unaffected by the weather due to her powers.

Inside his light blue coat pocket Missy was trembling from the unusual conditions, her small tarantula body not made for this type of climate. Her black and brown furry legs were hugged close to her body making her curl up into a small furry ball to try and conserve warmth, she could sense her partners distress and even felt his shivering body against her from the inside of his pocket.

The gale of a wind pushed harder against them forcing the two companions to slow down, their legs practically buried in the snow that now reached their frozen knees causing them to trudge with all the effort they could muster. They continued with this struggle for almost an hour, the blizzard so heavy you couldn't see the sun.

Suddenly Blaze seemed to just disappear into the mist of swirling snow. Silvers breath suddenly hitched. Panic clutched his heart.

"Blaze!" Silver cried desperately. There was no answer.

His hands scrambled to try and release himself from the snow. The snow was now thigh deep. His gloves now soaked to his skin. His eyes wide and breathing ragged. His heart racing in his chest. He swivelled his ears around to try and detect her. Anything but the howling of the ferocious wind. But there was no trace.

"Blaze! Where are you?" He was so cold that his shout came out as a rasped whisper, his body shivering uncontrollably as he lay in the snow.

The snow around his thighs grasped his legs firmly making it impossible to escape. Simple seconds went by and Silver could actually see the snow getting higher and higher as layer upon layer hit the ground around his legs. His eye lids felt heavy yet every time he tried to sleep a screech from his pocket would bring him back. _What is that screech? I can't...remember_, Silver thought in broken fragments, the cold numbing his memory to the point he couldn't remember why he was there, who he was supposedly desperate to find, what the screech from his pocket was. Why...he couldn't even remember his own name. Every time he closed his eyes and opened them, all he could see was white.

"Silver!" A strange yet familiar female voice called. However, he couldn't remember who it was or his own name. So he ignored it.

"Silver, answer me!" the voice was now louder, but white was all that filled his vision and he could see no sign of the female.

"Silver!" The voice sounded relieved yet concerned, the voice was now so close that the female was probably right next to him, kneeling by him. He realised the girl was talking to him, as if she had known him for a very long time. _Who is...Silver? I'm so confused_, Silvers mind refused to function properly as it continued at a torturing pace to shut down from the brutal freeze clutching him.

He felt a comforting warmth suddenly envelop his legs and felt strong yet obviously female arms wrap around his waist and pull him out. He could hear her gasping as she dragged him onto the surface.

"Silver look at me for Gods sake!" The girl was now shaking his shoulders violently. This felt so familiar. But when Silver tried to see her all he could see was white, there was no girl there. It was obvious there was someone though since he could feel the force of the girl shaking him back and forth vigorously. _I don't understand... _

"W-where are you?" Silver asked timidly, his eyes looking straight ahead of him.

"Where am-SILVER I AM RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!" The girl shouted and stopped her shaking. Her topaz eyes igniting with her inner flames and her mouth snarling angrily. Her tail swished back and forth in the snow with agitation as she watched Silver look straight ahead of him.

"I...c-can't see you..." Silver hopelessly let one stray tear loose and felt it immediately freeze into a ball of ice on his cheek.

Blaze felt her anger boil into overload and grabbed his head and forced him to look into her eyes. She almost dropped his head in shock. Her feline eyes grew wide. Her tail abruptly ceased its swaying. Silvers eyes...were white.

As white as the deadly snow around them the normally gorgeous topaz eyes were pale and looking straight through her...as if she wasn't there. She shivered at the strange feeling of someone looking straight through her as if she was a window...a ghost.

"Silver...you have gone snow blind." Blaze stated calmly, her grip on his cheek softening with sympathy and guilt for the way she had treated him. Silver was probably frightened out of his mind right now.

"We need to get to a shelter, do you understand?" Blaze talked to him as if she was talking to a young child.

"But...I can't see." Silver whispered and only Blazes' keen cat ears could have possibly picked it up; she rolled her eyes at him thinking `well done captain obvious. `

"You are so naive." Blaze smiled in reassurance but realised he couldn't see it. With a sigh she hooked his arm around her shoulders and started making her way slowly to an ice cave she had come across before discovering Silver was missing. _You are so naive...that sounds so familiar..._

XXXX

With a click of her fingers a fire erupted in the palm of her hand, the click sounding like a match being struck against a match box. The flames light danced and flickered off the mirror like ice walls of the cave, every step she took in here caused the ice floor to make a cracking sound beneath her feet. She turned to look at her distorted reflection on the many walls surrounding her, every small noise bouncing off of them and deep into the depths of this predictably maze like cavern.

Her breath came in small visible puffs as she watched Silver leaning against a wall, his clothes now dry thanks to her and his eyes staring off into nothingness.

"Can you see anything yet?" She asked quietly, talking too loud in here seemed to put her on the edge as if something was lurking deep within the dark. Silver only shook his head and she sighed unhappily.

"THIS WAY!" Men shouted as they thundered into the tunnel.

Blaze jumped ten feet in the air. The cave was suddenly filled with running footsteps. She ran to Silver and put her flame out. They were left in darkness.

"Come on Silver," Blaze whispered and harshly pulled him up by his arm, it was so dark as she started to run deep into the cave with Silver in tow.

A fire torch appeared behind them as they ran down a narrow tunnel. They were close. The lights reflected off the walls. Confusing her. Making it harder to find the path. It was as bad as a house of mirrors. Silver was completely blind and oblivious...she was on her own now.

"DOWN HERE!" Was another scream. The thundering footsteps were following them.

The ice crunched beneath her feet. The jagged ice walls threatened to get in her way. The tunnel was getting narrower and narrower. Harder and harder to squeeze through. Blaze suddenly stopped dead making Silver fall into her back.

"W-What's going on?" Silver asked nervously at her sudden stop.

"It forks! There are four different tunnels!" Blaze hissed, her head darting from one tunnel to the next trying to choose which would be best. It was incredibly dark and even she was having trouble seeing without a flame to light her way. But she couldn't since it would give them away.

Without warning she grasped Silvers arm and started running down the tunnel closest to her left, if she could just lose them for now. Silver blinked, _this feels so familiar...why can't I place it, _Silver still couldn't remember who this female was or who they were running from. In his white snow blind vision...a black speck appeared.

"OVER HERE!" Was yet another cry and Blaze wanted to curse since they were heading right down her chosen tunnel.

They kept running. Their breaths now laboured. Their hearts pounding. All of a sudden Blaze thought she was going to have a panic attack...they were running into a dead end!

"No..." She rasped and skidded to halt.

Silver blinked twice, _her voice is so recognizable...her name- _

Silver suddenly hit the dead end ice wall, his train of thought abruptly stopped. The black dot in the middle of the white was growing. Panic clutched Blazes mind, her body, her soul. She touched the freezing wall. Searched it. Clawed it. Desperate for an escape.

Silver slumped against the wall and fell to the floor. Still blind, still useless. He could hear her frightened breaths. He could hear the thundering feet. Their cries of anguish. Her cries of desperation. Silvers brow furrowed, the black dot grew even bigger and he could see a purple blur above him_...I know her..._

"THERE THEY ARE!" Yet another yell.

"No...We have to get out." A trembling voice.

"WE'VE GOT THEM!" So loud. So close

"There has to be another way!" The sound of claws scraping against ice. Silver was having a flash back.

_...I know her..._

"**...You would still hold me...after what you have seen?" Blazes voice trembled**

_...I've known her for a long time..._

"**I would always hold you. To stop you falling...to stop you losing yourself. I understand now...why you try to control your temper with breaking things. You try to calm the rage, calm the flames inside of you."**

Silvers vision was no longer white. He could see! Everything seemed to move in slow motion. The men bounding towards them. Their shoes hitting the ice floor. The ice specks flying from their feet. Their mouths wide and screaming. Blazes claws covered in her own blood.

"**That is why I still hold you Blaze. You are so strong...to keep this up for so long. To keep the flames of rage at bay. I see past this, I have **_**always**_** seen past this. That is why I have always been here for you...and I always will be."**

_...I still hold you Blaze..._

A man leapt in slow motion at her.

_.. you Blaze..._

His arms were spread! About to grab her!

_...Blaze..._

Blaze put her arm up protectively! The man was about to descend on her!  
"Blaze!" Silvers head shot up, as if awakening from a nightmare. He could remember!

The man froze mid jump, suspended in the air. Blaze slowly opened her eyes as she removed her arm and gasped. Silver stood in front of her, his hands green with his power as he held the man firm. Growling with anger as he stood in a fighting stance and protected her.  
"Silver, you can see," Blaze whispered joyfully, Silver turned his head to look at her behind him, a giant grin plastered across his face.

"I will always be here for you, I will always help you...you know that." Silver spoke with a strength and confidence that Blaze had never heard from him before.

Out of the blue Silver dropped the man and forced all his mental power to his hands. His whole body glowed with his strong telekinetic power as his topaz eyes flicked to the wall to his right, contemplating something. He thrust a mental wave out, knocking all the men sharply backwards before hitting the wall with all his mental energy. The mental energy smashed the wall. Ice chunks crashed all over the floor. A hole was made and a new exit. A rumble echoed through the cave, almost knocking them off their feet. Ice stalagmites fell from the ceiling. The cave shook. Silver grabbed Blazes hand and bolted through the hole just in time to miss the ceiling caving in. Crashes and booms were heard as the whole maze cavern behind them collapsed. Stray ice shards clinked and spun on the ice floor...everything went silent.

**END OF CHAPTER**

**I hope that had enough action, tension and emotion to satisfy your tastes. I made this chapter so that it seemed the two never had a break, they were constantly chased. I hope you got that feeling too, of being on the run. Hope you liked it and please review **


	20. Getting away

Getting away

"The sun has set once again and the full moon has risen, good luck on your journey," Amina bowed and Motiff stood next to her with a snarl and just gave a gruff noise of acknowledgement. Shadow narrowed his eyes at the man, he honestly loafed him. Aminas bodyguard or not.

"Yep thanks for ya help, appreciated," Sonic gave the girl a cocky smirk and his signature thumbs up. Shadow rolled his eyes at his lover knowing full well you can't change something if that is what makes you who you are. Shadow crossed his arms and closed his eyes as he fell deep in thought, realising that it was this gesture and constant thinking that made Shadow who he was.

A small smile played on his lips for a second, but he quickly composed himself expertly when Sonic turned to look at him with a grin. Years of experience of being an, `emotionless prick`, as Sonic would put it made him an expert at concealing his emotions in a time of need.

They were currently in the hidden city beneath the city of Sharmar and had spent it mostly sleeping to get energy for tonight's all-nighter run in the desert. Shadow was managing to keep his worry of Rouge at bay, but it still lingered in the back of his mind._ I hope she is alright..._he thought with concern.

"Come on Shads! Let's go," Sonic was about to start walking off when Shadow cleared his throat with the most smug expression imaginable on his face.

"And Faker, pray tell, how you are going to get through the labyrinth on your own when you were blind folded through it. Erm...I think you won't." Shadow had such an evil smirk and glint in his ruby eyes when Sonic tried to formulate a reply that wasn't there.

"Humph," Sonic grunted and stuck his tongue out playfully but mentally knew that Shadow was right and being logical, as usual.

"That is alright, you will need a guide," Amina chimed in with her common sickly sweet smile. "Won't you Motiff?"

"Yes we will need a gui-what?" Shadow interrupted himself as he realised who she had just sent them off with; his eyes went wide for a second.

At the same time as Shadow speaking Motiff nodded without thinking, however when what she said hit home he began making incoherent sentences as he tried to reason with her. Shadow was also doing the same thing at the same time, trying to reason with the young princess. Both looking at her and practically yelling in unison. But Amina put her hand up and they immediately stopped babbling.

"You nodded Motiff, it is already decided," Amina giggled, her pink Sharmar dress swaying elegantly and her black plaited hair making her look extra cute. "You wouldn't go against one of my orders would you?"

Shadow and Motiff both looked at each other before sharply looking away in disgust, occasionally sending the other undignified glares. Shadows were obviously the more intimidating though. Sonic quietly snuck up to the princess.

"You did that on purpose didn't you?" Sonic whispered with a snigger, loving at how vindictive this princess was.

"How did you guess?" She replied back and both her and Sonic burst into fits of laughter, momentarily breaking a current glaring competition between Shadow and Motiff.

"You two better not be plotting against us," Shadow joked, already realising that this was indeed the case. The two had disliked each other considerably when they had first met, but it seems Sonic and Amina have so much in common that Sonic had instantly started taking a liking to her.

"Princess! You-You traitor!" Motiff made a dramatic cry at also realising this, though he would never admit that it was the black hedgehog that had made him realise this. He stroked his small black beard in defiance.

Sonic and Amina stared at each other in silence for a while before smiling.

XXXX

"What are you staring at runt!" Motiff grunted angrily as they had started walking through the narrow sandy paths of the labyrinth.

"I don't know...it is too ugly to put a name on it," Shadow growled coolly in reply.

_Ouch...now that was a comeback, _Sonic thought. For his own safety, Sonic had insisted on Motiff and Shadow walking ahead since it was too narrow for all three to walk in a line. That and he wanted to hide the occasional laughs he couldn't hold in; _Amina has really put the cherry on the cake this time._

"What did you say?" Motiff jutted his arm out quickly grasping Shadow around his neck and picking him up slightly off the ground, a snarl curling his lips. Shadow didn't even struggle or move, just sighed calmly. "Aren't you afraid I will kill you!"  
"Two things: one, I am the ultimate life-form and could kill you in a single second if I wanted to, _pathetic human!" _Shadow spoke so calmly you would have thought that he didn't have a hand grasped around his neck. "Second, I don't think your majesty would take it kindly. So, for your better health, I suggest you put me down, before word spreads to her highness." Shadows mouth curled upwards into a sly smirk, knowing he had hit all the right nerves.

Motiff's face faltered from its once strong appearance and he slowly put Shadow down with a snort and started walking on ahead. Shadow gave a satisfied sigh and pretended to brush off some imaginary dust from his black fur. I _knew he would play the `I'm the ultimate life-form` card! _Sonic mentally screamed in victory, but a frown went across his face at Shadows emphasis on `pathetic human`, it reminded Sonic of the Shadow he had first ever met. The cold, heartless one.

Sonic had a smile replace the frown quickly though, he loved how Shadow was with arguments, he could sway anyone to his point of view or make them do his every whim after only being with them for an hour or so. Considering Shadow had been in Motiffs company for a whole day and night Shadow was obviously the expert on him. Knowing every right button to push, which Shadow had clearly demonstrated faultlessly.

_Thinking back on it, you could call Shadow the quiet type, which is true, or the persuasive and strategic type...also true. It is indeed a talent to find someone's weaknesses without asking 'em, just by simply analysing their behaviour for an hour or less Shadow can form a strategy that would work in his favour. That is serious talent! He could become a detective or something, or an army commander making a strategy for a war, he would win hands down!_ Sonic mentally discussed with himself. Shadow raised an eyebrow at his blue counterpart, never seeing Sonic so deep in thought before_...or thinking at all before_, he thought sarcastically, _I hope it is something worth while._

The tunnels twisted and turned, sometimes smoothly and curved or sharp bends and corners, the sand was kicked up by their feet leaving small indented footsteps. Yet again getting distracted Sonic looked behind him and stopped short. The path they had just come down had no footprints.

"What the-Shadow our footprints are gone." Sonic mumbled to him and Shadow took note of this.

"Indeed they have," Shadow stated as if it was the most normal thing in the world. He turned back and glared at Motiff.

"We have workers called `dusters` down here. To prevent the hidden city being found they brush up the sand and cover our footprints," Motiff gruffly informed, returning Shadows glare full force.

"Wouldn't the most common sense thing to do be, get rid of the sand in the first place," Shadow mocked and Motiff grunted and had no comment.

_Man! I have never known Shadow to really dig into someone, he must really hate him_, Sonic thought with a grin, fiddling with his stone fox head necklace and a finger brushing against the emerald coloured gem in its mouth.

All the stone corridors looked the same, obviously used to make it harder for intruders, the sand stone jagged and rough unlike the smooth sandstone on the surface in the city of Sharmar. They kept on walking with Shadow and Motiff glaring daggers at each other in the front all the way. Sonic had counted that the longest they had glared at each other was for five minutes straight and even then Motiff broke eye contact making Shadow the victor. No one could win a glare-down against Shadow. Fact!

Finally Shadow and Sonic spotted the familiar part they had seen before; they saw the hole at the top of the ceiling concealed by the wooden barrel outside. Sonic smirked and stood on tiptoe and put his arms out of the rectangular slit to push the barrel out of the way. There was a scraping sound of it moving against the sand and Sonic sighed as he felt the cool, fresh, night air dance across his sweat covered skin. Sonic heaved himself up; the nice cool air hitting his face was soothing. He peered from left to right, no one was there or looking. He turned back to them and gave his signature thumbs up, Shadow watched as Sonic pulled himself up and disappeared through the slit. He gave one last disgusted glare at Motiff before following suit.

XXXX

The streets of Sharmar were ten times busier at night due to the cooler climate so they had to be extra cautious. Sonic relished in the feeling of fresh air after being trapped under ground for nearly two days and gave a relaxed stretch as Shadow crossed his arms, his ears pricked and alert for any possible giveaways of their presence.

"Remember, the guards will be on the look out for us, try not to do anything stupid Faker," Shadow huffed impatiently as Sonic began to stretch his leg muscles out.

"Oh chillax! And don't look at me like that, if I run without stretching my muscles they could tear and that would be bad news," Sonic grinned cockily as he shook the stretch off by wiggling his leg a bit.

"Guard!" Shadow said and pulled Sonic down with him behind the barrel before his companion could protest, his arms wrapped around his torso making Sonic blush furiously.

Sure enough the undeniable sound of hooves trotting along and clinking on the sand stone streets could be heard as a guard with a spear fully clad in shiny silver armour patrolled the streets. His white stallion moved slowly as the guards head turned from one street to the next, scanning them thoroughly. The people of Sharmar also walked casually down the streets in their colourful clothes, it was then Shadow realised the festival of the desert fox was still active and would be for another three days. He physically groaned and leant his head up against the rough wood of the barrel making Sonic cock an eyebrow with confusion at his behaviour. The guard continued on its way, the horses' hooves trotting calmly away and its lovely white mane swaying proudly.

"You do realise that damn festival is still active, it is going to be incredibly difficult, maybe even impossible to get out of this city undetected." Shadow groaned and shut his eyes for a brief second in frustration.

They shot back open instantly when he felt Sonic not get up, but lean further against his chest, snuggling his face into his soft white chest fur. For a moment he was paralysed and his muscles stiffened, but of course they were lovers and he wasn't about to whack Sonic over the head for this unusually rare show of affection, in the worst of times...in the middle of an alleyway whilst being hunted. Nope, everything was just peachy.

"Faker...how long did you sleep?" Shadow was starting to get suspicious, the only times when Sonic would openly show his love was when-

"I couldn't sleep, I only slept an hour or so," came the mumbled reply as the peach muzzle was buried deeper into the soft white pillow of his lovers chest fur. -_Was when Sonic had hardly slept...I should have known as much_, Shadow thought feeling a little bit stupid since he should have figured that out already.

"This is not the time to turn into Sleeping-Blue, come on!" Shadow hissed, getting fidgety and uneasy since he had no idea when another guard would come around on patrol. Come and catch them unawares.

The sky twinkled with its many diamonds of stars as the fire torches strapped to the walls were ignited with multicoloured flames for the festival, one was on the opposite wall to them, its embers blue in colour illuminating them like the moonlight from the full moon above. Shadow had to admit, if they weren't on the run...this would be kind of romantic. The sand beneath him was uncomfortable though and scratched at his legs, he needed to get up and Sonic needed to snap out of it. They needed to get out of here fast. Mentally apologising he smacked Sonic.

"Oww!" Sonic clutched his cheek; the slap wasn't hard enough to bruise but just enough to snap him out of his sleepy state for a bit. By the expression on his face he was not happy.

"Who goes there?" A bellow filled their ears making them freeze. Too distracted with Sonic Shadow hadn't detected another guard on a black horse turn the corner and dismount. The armour clinked and rattled as the soldier began to enter the dark alleyway. The sound of a sword unsheathing filled their delicate ears. The blue embers light reflecting off of the sword caused it to glint threateningly.

Suddenly, completely out of no where, a small dog appeared. It was as black as the night and its pelt was shiny and luxurious. Its big black eyes stared at the two and neither dared to move in an attempt to make sure it didn't bark. The dog then turned its head slightly to look at the approaching guard. Then back to the two. Would the dog give them away? Would it come to them? Or would it run off. It did neither.

It began to growl menacingly at the guard causing the guard to stop abruptly and stare at it. Its fangs bared as it began to bark. It barked and barked and growled and growled. The small dog slowly creeping to him in warning. The guard just laughed at it for its size and kept coming.

"Stay out the way mutt." he ordered impolitely and took another step. The dog didn't like that.

It barked even louder and snapped at his heels making him stumble backwards as he lost his balance. This whole time Sonic and Shadow just watched in wonder, the dog hadn't looked at them once...as if it knew.

"Alright, alright, I will leave." The guard surrendered and sheathed his blade; turning and walking briskly back to his black mare. Giving one last look down the dark alleyway and the dog he mounted his horse and the sound of his mares' hooves trotting away and her small snort as she was guided again were all that could be heard.

Shadow and Sonic released their held breaths and watched as the dog padded calmly towards them, tongue out panting and its little curly tail wagging away happily. As it got closer Sonic realised what breed it was.

"It's a pug." Sonic said incredulously, usually he thought pugs were ugly but this one was adorable, its eyes were so big and black. The dog whined and tilted its head to the side, tapping its little paw against the sand. It had no collar.

"That makes a difference because? Come on we have to go now!" Shadow whispered harshly as he pushed Sonic off of his lap, Sonic rubbing the dogs little tummy.

Shadow was getting so jittery that he was tapping his foot much like Sonic would do when he was waiting for something, yet his was more urgent. Sonic got the picture and with one last pet of the pug he ran with Shadow into the darkness of the alleyway.

**END OF CHAPTER**

**A much easier and calmer chapter to calm the tension from the last couple.**


	21. Escaping the city

Escaping the city

The moon shone brightly, its light dazzling on the water pools in the dusty Sharmar streets as Sonic and Shadow continued to weave carefully through the alleyways so far remaining unnoticed. The burning embers in the fire torches they had come across so far were blue, pink, green, yellow, red and even white making the streets glow in their multicoloured luminosity.

The musical instruments of the festival played cheerfully outside the maze like alleyways and the sound of the foreign language singing was mixed within it. The two had to remain slow, moving at their speeds could draw unwanted attention to themselves.

"Faker...the dog is following us." Shadow growled quietly as to not alert the dog.

Sonic gave a quick glance behind him, so fast that the dog couldn't have possibly detected it. Sonic nodded in agreement, there it was, the cute black pug hiding behind some sandy crates and peeking out its little round head. When Sonic and Shadow took a couple more steps it quietly stalked behind them to hide behind a brown pottery vase when it thought one was looking. Sonic gave a small laugh.

"It likes ya," Sonic sniggered and Shadow went a little pink and looked at him confused.

"Why would it like me Faker! I must give off a bad vibe, or something." Shadow questioned with confusion, feeling flustered and giving a small nervous glance at the dog who was hiding its head again. The dog was obviously trying to stay undercover.

"Well, it let me stroke it, but didn't ya notice how it was staring at you the whole time. For some reason...it has a thing for ya," Sonic mocked with a smirk, his index finger pointing upwards in a know it all fashion, one eye closed whilst the other emerald eye glittered playfully at his partner. Shadow gave a weak and hardly any effort involved glare.

For five whole minutes it remained like this. The dog following with small little steps at a time, its black eyes locked on the black hedgehog. Not even the celebration and the smell of cooking meat could distract it. They turned corners and used the opportunities to turn around and catch the dog unawares, but it just hid silently and waited. Through out this whole time, the dog was only thinking one thing; _Rare Breed!_

"The fact that it is staring at me, and not you, is disturbing me greatly. Why would it like me? Most animals cower in fear when I am in their presence, not follow me around!" Shadow told him embarrassed as the dog bounded from one side of the alley to the other in order to hide behind a pile of trash. Sonic just shook his head gently with a genuine smile.

"Maybe this one has managed to see further than the others, maybe it wants to know you," Sonic grinned.

"Doubtful," Shadow huffed in disbelief, but a little part of his mind was nagging him that maybe this was true.

_Or I am hoping it is true...but why would I hope for that_! Shadow thought hysterically and managed to catch another glimpse of shiny black fur scurrying across the alley to hide behind a potted plant. It was then he realised, the dog's determination to get something reminded him of Rouge.

"Shoo!" Shadow spun around suddenly and made a flicking motion with his hand. Nothing stirred. He turned and kept walking. The unmistakable sound of scurrying feet in the sand. A vein popped up on Shadows forehead. He spun back around. "Stay!"

The alleyway was empty to the naked eye, but Shadow knew the pug was there. Sonic couldn't contain his giggles at Shadows behaviour and muffled it with a gloved hand. The sand was churned up by their feet but apart from that, and the dog, everything was calm and still down here.

"Maybe we should try and lose it," Shadow snarled and tried to keep his temper under control at the pugs' big black eyes boring into the back of his head,

"Awww, let it dream Shads." Sonic spoke in a pretend sad tone, Shadows opinion was not swayed.

Without any warning he grabbed Sonics arms and yanked him into a run. They turned two corners and ran down two horribly smelling alleyways before coming to a rapid stop. Neither one of them was breathing heavily since to them, that wasn't far and they didn't run at top speed either. Shadow peered around the corner and looked down the alley they had just run through, he couldn't see the pug.

"There was no way that little dog could have possibly-"

Shadow turned around to start walking again when right in front him. Sitting their panting. Was the little black pug. Round eyes looking at him with adoration. Shadow flinched back.

"You are a demon dog! You must be!" Shadow yelped very much unlike himself and Sonic burst into tears of laughter.

"Awww look it at it, it can't be a demon Shads...it's too cute!" Sonic suddenly picked the pug up into his arms; the pug barked happily and wagged its little curly tail. Its eyes never left Shadow though. "Come on Shadow, maybe if you stroke it, it will be happy and leave ya alone." He suggested.

Shadow stared at the pug who was doing a paw motion to him. In Shadows mind he thought it was thinking, _come here prey come here_. When the dog was actually thinking; _Rare Breed! Rare Breed! Want approval from Rare Breed!_

Shadow put his hand out to touch the dog in Sonics arms but his hand hesitated for a second, _perhaps it is just putting on this cute act so that I will get close, it could really be plotting to bite my hand off!_ Shadow thought in paranoia as the dog did the paw motion again and was looking at him with cute puppy dog eyes and panting expectantly. _Rare Breed! Rare Breed! Want to be friends!_

Shadow closed his eyes and put his hand out and stroked the little dogs head. The dog got extra excited and barked happily, almost making Sonic drop it. Shadow withdrew his hand and opened his eyes; Sonic placed the pug back down.

"See, that wasn't so hard, was it." Sonic mocked as he shrugged his shoulders, Shadow only gave a deep sigh in answer and stared down at the pug who was looking at him with even more adoration than before...if that was even possible. The problem was the dog still didn't leave, in fact it decided it would stop hiding and walked right next to Shadow._ I don't know what is worse..._Shadow mentally cried and tried his best to ignore the constant stares from the pug to his left.

XXXX

They finally reached the edge of the city, but it was going to incredibly difficult to escape, the giant sandstone archway with the desert foxes engraved on it had a constant flow of people swarming around it. Sonic got down from his little lookout of a wooden tiled roof and jumped down with ease to Shadow on ground level. The pug was sitting next to Shadow, no longer panting but just looking at the two in wonder, interested in what they were doing.

"We need a distraction, there is no way we can exit the city undetected when it is like this," Sonic had turned serious and was eyeing Shadow for a plan; it was always Shadow who could come up with a good plan. Shadow gave an exasperated sigh.

Leaping onto the same roof as silently as a bat he looked at his surroundings. Straight ahead was the archway. The bustling people of the fourth tier market were swarming around visitors and working. The guards on their horses were, literally, at the sides of the gate. _Trying to prevent our escape, they are still hunting us_, Shadows mind reeled with all the information, taking everything from several different points of view. He put a hand on his chin in thought as Sonic and the pug both stared up at him, waiting. Shadow stared at a particular part of the market, a contemplative look on his face. A smirk spread across his tan lips, he knew what to do. He landed with a small thud on the ground with expert grace.

"I have a plan...but there is one big flaw in it," Shadow crossed his arms.

"What's that?" Sonic asked worriedly, Shadow shut his stern eyes.

"Someone that is not either of us has to do something," Shadow began, removing one hand from his crossed arms and had his palm facing upwards. "We could get someone off the street that does not know us. Which is highly unlikely. They would need to attack the guard on the right side of the archway, run for the pots furthest away on the same side, causing the guards to run through a crowd and attract attention, the pots must be deliberately destroyed which will cause an uproar. All this combined would get nearly everyone's attention. We would then escape undetected."

"Right...so we just need someone who will willingly risk their life." Sonic said sarcastically with a sweat drop and looked down at his tapping foot in concentration.

"If only Motiff were here, I would force him out there," Shadow smirked evilly and Sonic punched his arm. However Sonic suddenly froze with a frown, his fist still against Shadows upper arm; Shadow cocked an eyebrow at him.

"What is it?" Shadow asked uncrossing his arms, his ruby eyes locked on his lover and filled with concern.

"...Where's the pug?"

XXXX

Shadow and Sonic bolted to the edge of the alleyway and peered around the corner. The pug was running for all it was worth for the guard on his horse to the right side of the archway. Barking at the top of its little lungs.

"Oh no..."Shadow droned and palm smacked his forehead; well at least the pug was making itself useful. Sonic, to say the least, was shocked beyond belief.

"That's one brave little dog," Sonic gasped out and blinked as the pug suddenly lunged and managed to bite into the flesh of the armour-less guards' leg.

A scream filled the air as the pugs fangs sunk down and latched on for all it was worth. The guard kicked and flailed about. The pug held firm. Crowds near the archway turned to watch. Some screamed with terror. Some laughed as if it was humorous. With all his flailing the guard actually fell off his horse. The white horse reared back in fear. Almost trampling its owner to shreds. The dog let go and ran as fast as its little legs would carry it.

"GET THAT LITTLE RAT!" The guard screamed with rage, his brown hair clinging to his face with sweat as he forced himself onto his injured leg. The other guards on the left side forced their horses over with concern. Shadow smirked; _this is all going just as planned._

The pug was jumping up and down as if this was a fun game, mocking the guard who screamed and tried to limp over to where the little rat was...right near a pile of freshly made and almost dry pottery.

"Let it go mate! There is no point!" His fellow guards, who were also strangely amour-less, tried to reason, but nothing would stop him now.

With obvious adrenaline and rage he ran on his painful leg. Pain causing him to grimace and stumble with a slight limp, but even so he still moved fast. The pug barked happily and wagged its tail and thought; _must impress Rare Breed! Must make him proud! _The guard was now close enough. Being a small dog the pug weaved in between the pots with effortlessness grace. The guard however wasn't going through the pots like planned but went around to catch the dog on the other side. Sonic put a hand to his mouth. This wasn't taking a good turn.

"Got you!" The guard snarled in victory as the dog skidded to halt with a whine. Not even millimetres away from the coarse and rough fingers! If a dog could grin evilly, it did.

Another cry of pain was screamed to the heavens as the dog bit straight into his bare hand. No clothes. No protection what so ever. Just pure skin and flesh. Blood splattered to floor as he threw his arm about frantically. The dog held on. Refused to let go. The guard was actually making it worse for himself. Losing his balance in his flurry he fell on top of the pots. Smashes filled the air and the other guards rode over to help their companion. If everyone's attention wasn't on the scene it was now. The dog let go and ran off.

The guard laid in the broken mess with blood everywhere from both his leg and hand wound. The owner of the pot shop came out yelling in the Sharmar language. The guard trying to apologise in the language as well. Everyone gathered around as the old woman came over and whacked him over the head with her walking stick. Causing the guard to cry in protest. At this the whole crowd and the other guards burst into laughter. Everyone missing the laughter of two hedgehogs escaping undetected through the giant stone archway and into the desert beyond.

XXXX

"I hope the pug will be alright." Sonic thought aloud as Shadow and Sonic ran next to each other deep into the desert, Shadows skates blazing away and him moving his arms in rhythm.

"It is only a dog, it is insignificant. We need to get that page," Shadow sounded heartless, except for the fact he was indeed impressed with the little pugs' act of bravery. Sonic knew this as well and smiled.

"We have only been here three days, it feels like way more," Sonic muttered as he looked at the full moon above.

"It only feels that way because of all that has happened. We have eighty three days left until the comet arrives; it feels like a long time. A whole week has already passed since Tikal arrived to us. We seem so close to a page now, in only three days...it is too easy," Shadow whispered in answer, Sonic almost didn't hear it. "Knowing Mephiles...he is scheming right now or even has a plan in action right this second."

"Shads don't jinx it," Sonic grinned to try and lighten the mood. Shadows lips quirked up a little into a small smile of his own, his ruby eyes reflecting the light of the full moon made him look mysterious as they focused on running straight ahead of them. Aminas words suddenly crept into the crevices of Shadows mind.

"**You must head east from the entrance to the city, keep running east until you reach the `Suns eye`. Beneath the eye, buried beneath centuries of sand...you will find the buried temple." Amina instructed.**

XXXX

All night they searched, they found nothing. Sonic was getting too tired and you could feel the heat already starting to build as the sky started to turn reddish orange from the sunrise. They found a large brown rock with a gap beneath it for shade and Sonic immediately fell asleep on Shadows shoulder, Shadow stayed awake in case of scorpions or any other poisonous insects suddenly crawling out of nowhere.

_The suns eye, what does it mean?_ He desperately thought for an answer, he thought so hard that with all the warmth from the rising sun and Sonics softness against him he started getting strangely exhausted. The warm, musky scent of the desert was the last thing needed to relax him beyond the point of remaining awake. He couldn't stop himself as he fell into a dreamless sleep. Little did he know...they were being watched.

XXXX

Shadow found himself opening his eyes groggily to a cool breeze sweeping over the desert. The sun was setting into twilight with its purples and blues; they had slept for the whole day. Shadow sat up sharply, effectively throwing the still dozing Sonic off his comfortable shoulder and into the sand. Sonic yelped awake, the sand burning hot from the days scorching sun made his body sting in pain. Turning he glared at Shadow who had a very sheepish look plastered on his face. However, the ultimate life-form thought he was almost going to faint at the next thing he saw.

"Ruff!" The black pug barked making Shadow jump out of his skin.

"HOW THE-YOU MUST BE A DEMON!" Shadow shouted as he saw the pug sitting calmly next to him under the rock, tail wagging and tongue panting from the heat. "YOU ARE SUICIDAL!"

"Ruff! Ruff!" Was the simple reply, its black shiny fur had gritty sand all over it.

"Sonic! This dog is here! We are miles and miles away from the city and this dog managed to reach us in just a day! You can't tell me this thing is normal!" Shadow babbled as the dog seemed to smile with joy at what it classed as its new friend. _I found you Rare Breed! I found you!_

"Must have a homing instinct," Sonic spat out sourly, he was rubbing his sore and burned arms.

Shadow fiddled with his stone fox head necklace around his neck, the ruby jewel sparkling in the light of the once again gibbous moon. The pug cocked its head to the side with a small whine; it seemed interested in the necklace, before catching Shadow unawares and pouncing onto his lap. Shadow froze as the dog nuzzled the ruby with its nose, sampling its scent. As quickly as it had come it jumped off and sat back down again. Shadow blinked at it and the dog panted joyously in return.

For the whole night they ran, leaving the dog behind having a strong feeling it would find them no matter where they went. _Like Amy_, Sonic compared mentally as he searched around some high pointed rocks reaching towards the clear night sky.

The pug was lying down under the rock they had used as a shelter the day before, big black eyes watching as the occasional blue or black blur would whiz past churning up sand in its wake. Her furry head following them as they went by. With a cute little yawn it rolled onto its back and fell asleep, _Rare Breed could be a while._


	22. When true colours take control

When true colours take control

A groan filled the small, round, ice room as Blaze found herself lying on the floor. Silver was not far and was lying across the room with his own eyes flickering awake. She sat up groggily, clutching her side instantly as pain shot up her spine, when she removed her gloved hand to look she noticed the dry blood on the finger tips from her desperate scratching earlier and also fresh red blood.

"You're hurt," Silver looked concerned with his brows furrowed. "It's my fault."

"Come on Silver! Don't treat me like a damsel in distress; I can hold my own you know!" She made a humph in reply with a small pout.

"Then why didn't you earlier?" Silver asked, a little taken aback by her outburst. Blaze looked him straight in the eyes.

"Because...I was afraid," Blaze murmured. "Of my powers going out of control again, besides if I melted the walls then the whole cave could have come crashing down. Like you just demonstrated."

Silvers expression softened at this and he decided to change the subject. He let his gaze travel down to the huge gash trickling blood on Blazes left side, it looked like it had been caused by a sharp falling ice stalagmite when they had leapt for the hole. With out a word he took his coat off and allowed Missy out. The tarantula immediately crawled onto his shoulder. Blaze watched in interest.

It didn't take much but he tore off one sleeve of the coat causing Blaze to protest which Silver immediately stopped with a hand. _He has...changed_; Blaze thought to herself, _he seems more...assertive than before_. _Maybe this experience has done this to him._

Blaze gave a small yelp of surprise when she felt Silvers hands wrap around her waist, she wasn't sure what he was doing at first, only when he moved away and sat on his knees did she notice. He had tied the light blue coat sleeve around her waist, effectively keeping it in place and covering up the wound on her side. She brushed her fingers across the material gently and nodded in approval.

"Well, I am more used to you leading and being strong so can you take over please," Silver suddenly spoke up innocently, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly and Blaze sweat dropped. _Never mind...he is still naive._

Feeling the confidence of the leading role again Blaze felt herself steel up as she stared at the small confinement they were now in. The whole room was definitely round; in fact...it was too rounded. Blaze narrowed her eyes at this; it was almost as if this room was carved to be a smooth round room since the walls were not bumpy and uneven like the cavern they had escaped from. Blaze stood up, snarling in pain as she clutched her side. Silver got worried and went to help, but Blaze shook her head.

"I can do it myself Silver, you were never this over protective before. Nothing has changed, I can cope," her voice was so stern, so wise, like the voice of a leader. Silver nodded and stepped back. Blaze remembered saying things like this before, in the life she never wanted people to know about, the life she was born and destined to live with. The life she hated and ran away from.

She remembered when she used to push everyone away, used to think it was all her responsibility and that she had to do everything by herself. Obviously this opinion changed, but deep down she knew that she sometimes acted on this old impulse...like now for example. _Perhaps it is my pride-_

"What do we do? We're trapped," Silver suddenly broke her thoughts off and Blaze had to restrain herself from strangling him, or throwing some ice shards at him which could be lethal. Silver blinked at Blazes annoyed expression and cocked his head innocently to the side.

Blaze walked with a small crouch towards one of the walls, she took a bloodstained glove off in order to touch the wall with her bare skin. She shivered involuntarily at the freezing cold touch, but it was definitely too smooth to be naturally made.

"This room has been sculpted to be this way; there are no entries into here. Who would do this then seal it up to make it a hidden room," Blaze questioned curiously.

"Look at this! It looks like a lever," Silvers gentle voice suddenly echoed throughout the room as Blaze turned to examine what he was speaking about.

Indeed, it looked like a lever, a lever made of ice. It was sticking against the wall and looked like it needed to be pulled outwards in order to trigger what ever it was made for. Blaze found this awfully suspicious and quickly slapped Silvers hand away when he motioned to grab it.

"Blaze; there is no way out of here. We're trapped. We might as well see," Silver told her confusedly, waiting for her signal to let him pull it.

"And what if the ceiling falls on us? What if something disastrous happens? What will we do then if there is no way out?" Blaze demanded the answers; Silver took a shy step backwards.

"...I don't know," Silver whispered honestly, not meeting Blazes eyes. "But it is better than doing nothing."

Blaze slowly turned her gaze to the lever, contemplating on her choices. She flicked her head away and Silver watched timidly. She gave a hesitant nod, but did not turn her head to meet his gaze. There she stood, resilient in the middle of the room with her back turned.

Silver grasped the lever tightly, fingers curling around the cylinder made of solid ice. The atmosphere felt unimaginably tense as if it was weighing him down. If he pulled this and something bad happened like Blaze said, it would be his fault. Perhaps that is why she had her back turned as if it was bound to happen. He gulped and his hand trembled. He started to put some force into pulling it. Blaze could hear the creaking of it moving slightly and her tail flicked in anticipation. A thunderous creak vibrated through the room as he managed to get the lever down. They both went rigid with fear. Both remained silent. Nothing happened.

"Huh?...the mechanism mu-AHHHH"

Blaze didn't get time to finish. The floor beneath her suddenly cracked! Then disappeared! With a feline yowl of shock she fell. Silver watched in horror as the middle of the floor vanished, taking Blaze with it. There was complete and utter silence. Silver took a tiny step closer.

"Blaze?" He asked fearfully. No answer. He crept to the edge. He got dizzy at seeing pure darkness down the hole. That must be one hell of a drop. Pieces of the ice floor around the edge of the hole continued to chip off and fall into the darkness.

"Blaze!" He tried again. Landing on his knees and kneeling over the edge to look deep into the hole his friend had fallen into. His own voice echoing down, down, down into the bottomless pit.

"...When you get your ass down here I am going to kill you," Suddenly Blazes voice echoed to his ears from deep down within the darkness, however it sounded incredibly shaky from the shock. Silver let out a huge sigh of relief.

"I thought you were dead!" Silver called with a huge smile on his face.

"_You_ will be when you get down here!" Was the retort and Missy on his shoulder was quivering in fright, not wanting to jump down there.

Silver put his hand up to his shoulder and grabbed Missy, putting his other hand on top as a protective case for her small, fragile, furry body. He stared at the darkness and fear gripped him, he was really afraid of the dark. Blaze knew this.

"C-can you light a flame," Silver trembled, not only from the cold since he didn't have his coat anymore but the pure fright coursing through him. "...It's too dark."

"Silver, this isn't the time to be a baby," was her mock answer, but Silver sounded really cute right now so she let him off. A flame sparked to life in her palm illuminating her crash sight. She gazed upwards and could see that it was a very long drop; luckily cats always land on their feet. Then the fact hit her, Silver couldn't do that!

"W-wait!" Blaze stuttered.

Silver leapt. Missy screeched in his hands as her stomach dropped. Blaze was wide eyed below running around like a headless chicken.

"Oomph!" Was all Blaze could squeak out when a falling Silver splattered her onto the floor!

"Oh! Did I hurt you?" Was Silvers innocent question.

YOU DON'T SAY! I'M AS FLAT AS A SKINNED RUG! Was what she mentally exploded with.

"No Silver...if my brain isn't skidding across the floor...then I'm fine," Was her actual sarcastic reply.

Silver looked alarmed and thought she wasn't joking, Blaze grunted as she sat up forcing Silver to fall off her back. A gasp of pain filled the air as she clutched her side, Silvers coat sleeve still wrapped around her waist and covering the gash there. Silver realised too late that such a drop and himself landing so undignified on her could have made the situation much worse.

"I am fine, I can take care of myself," Blaze ordered, forcing herself onto her feet. Silver put his hands up surrendering; he didn't know why Blaze was so closed off.

At that moment they allowed each other to look into each others eyes, Blazes stern ones to Silvers confused ones, yellow clashing with yellow. For a brief moment they remained like that, as if no words were needed to be discussed to sort the problem. Each of their breaths came out like a smoky mist from their mouths as the freezing temperatures down here sucked the heat out of their veins.

Blazes fire-proof purple cloak was damp, sticking to her skin and outlining her frame, Silvers quills were ruffled and both looked worse for ware. They were being hunted, outcasts they were, on the run from Blazes cruel fate that had been destined here. They knew that they were on the edge of madness, never once getting a break and now trapped in a never-ending cave of ice...they needed each other now more than ever. Blaze shut her eyes and slowly lifted her arm, the cloaks material scrunching up at all the right places as she offered her feline hand to him, the fur surrounding her gloves sticking together from moisture and sweat that had developed earlier. Once again she turned her purple head away.

Silver stared at the soft gloved hand in front of him, deciding deep down whether he should take it or not. A part of him wanted to in order to comfort her; the other...wanted to walk straight past her. She had been really snappy with him, unintentionally he knew, but a part of his innocent mind was slightly angry with the cat. He managed to push this aside to the back of his mind, bottling it up as he took her hand. The tight grip they held was unbreakable as she began to lead Silver over the dangerous bumpy terrain of sharp ice shards. Occasionally one would slip, but the other would always break their fall.

"We came here for the page, yet we completely forgot until now from those villagers hunting me." Blaze claimed as she helped Silver across to another hole in the ice wall, this one their only way out.

Silver only nodded slightly, his emotions having an internal battle within his innocent mind; the anger being bottled up seemed to get stronger. Topaz eyes trailed to the shiny floor to his reflection staring back at him. He took note of, for a male, how weak he looked. Compared to Sonic and Shadow he was just someone that watched from the sidelines. He was no hero.

Snarling at himself his feet suddenly picked up the pace; Blaze spared a glance behind her to see something foreign in Silvers usually soft eyes. Blazes eyebrows creased as she saw...fury. Silver then ran ahead, dragging her behind him.

"I will take lead now," Silver hissed through gritted teeth, Blaze was now frightened that Silver was beginning to doubt himself. She almost stumbled as she strained to keep up with Silvers unusually swift pace.

"Silver?" Blaze whispered, digging her heels into the slippery ice floor and causing Silver to stop. He didn't turn to face her, but the hand holding Blazes own was trembling slightly and so was the one clenched at his side. "Is there something you want to talk about?"

"No." Was his simple answer, his voice unnaturally low like a growl. Blaze went to touch his shoulder reassuringly but Silver flinched away as soon as a single trace of her hand was felt. He spun around, his eyes so sharp and his fangs bared.

"How would you feel? If no matter what you did it was unnoticed! If when you tried to be someone you were ignored! If no matter what you do all it does is end in someone getting hurt!" Silver suddenly burst out, his eyes on fire not unlike Blazes own eyes when the feelings got too much. The burning eyes glaring at the wound on Blazes side. "I'm no hero."

Silver suddenly let go of her hand and started walking on ahead, Blaze was left staring shockingly at his leaving back. Her ears flattened against her head as she rubbed her arm upsettingly.

"...You're a hero to me," she muttered and started to follow him, secretly hiding the tears in her eyes.

Silver didn't know what had come over him then, but he had refused to meet his friends sad gaze as he had started to walk away, started to leave her behind. Well, what is done is done; he can't take it back now. The dark passageways of the ice cave down here were just the same as the circular room with the lever; it was incredibly smooth as if it had been sculpted that way. However, this also meant that their reflections were everywhere they turned and it was taunting Silver, making him feel worse and along with this his own rage was wiping out his fear of the dark that currently surrounded him.

Missy could feel the unfamiliar boil of rage within him, sitting on his shoulder she timidly gazed up into his huge gold eyes that now seemed more orange, darkened with anger and sizzling fury at himself. She hesitantly brushed a black and brown furry leg across his cheek.

"Stop that!" Silver yelled and smacked Missy off his shoulder. The tarantula screamed as his hand collided with her and she flew through the air. Tumbling over the cold floor.

Blaze gasped in disbelief, this wasn't the Silver she knew. Silver kept moving as if not realising what he had done. Blaze stepped toward Missy and kneeled down as the tarantula was trying with all its might to get up. The floor was too slippery and she couldn't do it. Black beady eyes frightened as she watched Silver walk away, her partner walk away. The spider screeched for him. But he didn't turn around. Blaze picked her up and put Missy on her shoulder instead. Silver needed a talk with, now.

"Stop," Blaze ordered, Silver strangely obeyed. "What has gotten into you? This isn't you Silver; it isn't the chocolate loving innocent one we know." Missy nodded on her shoulder, rubbing one of her sore legs.

"Innocence gets you nowhere, being naive gets you nowhere!" Silver snarled as he crossed his arms. Blaze shook her head frantically.

"That is what makes you who you are! That is what I-"Blaze withheld a chocking sob. "Is what I-I-"

Silver raised an eyebrow at her, this wasn't the Blaze he knew either. Most of the time she would spill out what she thought without a moment's hesitation.

"Look what you did!" Blaze instantly grabbed Missy and held her in her palms towards Silver. Silvers expression slightly faltered at the obviously physically...and emotionally hurt companion he had come to bond with and cherish. Sharp eyes lessoned somewhat. "The Silver I know wouldn't dare do this to her, not ever!"

Silver uncrossed his arms; the coldness of the cave seemed even colder when someone was stabbing a knife of realisation through your heart, the knife infected with a poison that froze your veins and mind too. He began quivering, but this was not from fury or anger...just plain guilt. Through his fury he hadn't felt in control of his actions, _doing that to Missy was an accident, I swear!_ Feeling the familiar touch of slender fingers brush against his shoulder he sharply looked up to see Blaze smiling warmly at him, this place was truly driving him mad.

"...I'm sorry," Silver suddenly threw himself at Blaze making her endure more pain in her side as Silver hugged her, his voice muffled in the crook of her neck. "I didn't mean it! I'm so sorry!"

Missy was staring at the grey hedgehog, the grey hedgehog that had hurt her so greatly in her heart. She nervously crawled onto his shoulder. Hesitating before brushing a leg against his face and instantly flinching in reflex. She was afraid.

Silver stroked her fondly, pure emotion behind every stroke, feeling this Missy knew he was truly apologising. She screeched a small happy screech and nuzzled her body against Silvers cheek, Silver smiled with a little laugh since her prickly fur tickled. Things had settled down between everyone as both Blaze and Silver walked side by side through the twisting and turning tunnels. Silver had come to the conclusion that yes they were trapped in this cave, but he had also been trapped within himself. Blaze and Missy, his closet friends and companions had helped to bring him back out.

"When we get back, I am in serious need of a hot chocolate." Silver bellowed, completely breaking the tension and Blaze laughed next to him.

"I second that! Although I would prefer hot milk." Blaze volunteered. Missy suddenly screeched on his shoulder and was jumping up and down on her little spider feet. "It seems someone else wants one too."

With the mood lightened they turned a corner and stopped dead in their tracks. Straight ahead was light signalling a way out. Both grinned hysterically as their feet pounded on the smooth floor, the noise echoing through out the whole ice cavern. A frosty wind blowing through Blazes hair made it flutter elegantly behind her and Silver admired her once again for her pure beauty. Missy's' microscopic hooks on the bottom of her black and brown legs almost lost their grip, but she was pleased all the same. The light got closer and closer. Brighter and brighter. Until they ran directly through it.

An even colder breeze seized them making the coatless Silver shudder involuntarily; they stood still in awe at what they saw, both also savouring the fresh air. They were not out of the cave, but essentially in an enormous room that towered immensely above them. It was the hugest room they had ever laid their eyes on, but what really transfixed them was something that neither one of them expected to see.

The floor looked like a frozen ocean, the curling waves and wavy patterns frozen still as if a great freeze had swept over it suddenly whilst it was still moving. In the middle were large crystals of ice and frost that glittered and sparkled stretching towards the inaccessible ceiling. Remarkably, amongst the crystal shaped pillars of ice, was something extremely large and wooden sticking out from within it.

Mixed in with the ice was a large ship, the prow pointing extravagantly upwards as if even now it was proud to be a ship. Sounds of creaking wood bounced off the walls as if the boat was still at sea, bracing what was once the greyish waves. Its wood obviously used to be painted black since some of the paint was wearing and peeling off to reveal the damp and mouldy wood beneath. White sails fluttered menacingly in the breeze and were torn and tattered, the white hauntingly swirling in the wind.

"Silver! Do you realise what this is?" Blaze piped up, taking a couple of hasty steps forward in the direction of the boat. "One beneath the thickest ice...the page must be here!"

**END OF CHAPTER**

**OK guys, things are going to get way better from this point onward! **


	23. Ship of the dead

Ship of the dead

Silence, pure silence was the only thing they could hear as they cautiously took their first steps onto the ship. A haunting mist swirled on the deck, sweeping over their shoes and making them shudder and huddle closer together. A wooden door rocked on its hinges, squeaking as it swung unsteadily and the door frame revealing a set of ancient steps descending down into the galley. Jingling sounds of kitchen equipment rang in their ears from below as they slowly examined the deck.

Creaks rattled them as every step they took caused the floor to dip unnaturally beneath them, the dampness making the boards so soft they could give way at any moment. Silvers ears flattened onto his head, his quills sticking on end at the chilling sensation rolling up his spine. It felt like death here.

Missy scurried into the fine grey head quills of Silver as she sensed the horrible spirits wandering aimlessly around the boat, the spirits never resting and floating amongst the ghostly sails watching the two arrivals every move. Silver grasped at his arms for security as his eyes darted from side to side, eyes lingering on the broken railing lining the deck, its wood cracked and bent in unnatural ways.

Almost fainting he beckoned to Blaze to look at the wheel; the rotting wood was slathered in seaweed and was spinning. What made this more frightful was that when the wheel finished spinning one way...it started spinning the other as if someone was handling it.

"I don't like this Blaze." Silver whispered timidly, afraid talking too loud would disturb the supernatural calm around them. Afraid a scary face would turn up out of nowhere and scare the living daylights out of him.

Broken ropes of the rigging were carried by the wind; in fact the whole ship felt like it was being swayed left to right as if being carried on a moving sea. The wheel turning, the sails fluttering and the feel of the wind made the whole boat seem alive and working. As if this boat was frozen in the time it used to be used.

Blazes tail was bushing up slightly with the horrible frosty chills, the coldness of the ice felt like nothing compared to the consuming aura of this forbidden ship. Walking hesitantly she peered down the stairs leading to the galley, peered into the unknown with that sensation of being watched behind her back. Spinning around she only saw Silver appearing no better than she was. But even then it felt like something was brushing against her fur, tickling the furs on the back of her neck, like a spider over bare skin. She spun back to the door but was met with nothing, that undeniable feeling never leaving the tips of her fur.

Darkness swam at the bottom of the stairs like onyx water meaning it was impossible to see. An arm joining around Blazes own almost made her scream from the tension, but she shuddered with relief when seeing Silver clinging to her arm petrified.

Smelling the decay and with faltering specks of courage in their hearts they began to descend into the darkness. Silvers phobia of the dark nearly stopped her blood circulation as he squeezed unbelievably tight, eyes screwed shut so tightly the eye lids could tear. Step after step was taken with every single one bending uncomfortably low with their weight, when one would squeak underfoot they would freeze with terror.

Blazes feet attempted to find the floor, unsteadily pushing around the air until it reached solid ground. Dragging Silver with her they now stood alone in the darkness of the galley, for some reason she felt afraid to use her flames in case there was something disgusting or terrifying lurking down here in the shadows. But that also pressured her to conjure the embers that would illuminate the secrets hiding within this dark space. She decided on the former...for now.

Neither of them dared to speak as shaky step by step they travelled deep into the thick darkness swallowing them into its horrifying jaws. Consuming them whole as they walked right to the belly of the darkness, crept right into the very centre of the room. Their feet clinked on a metal grate, the sound seemingly too piercing in the pure silence. Suddenly Blaze felt something soft and squishy sweep over her feet. Her eyes widened and she screamed. Silver gripped her harder. His eyes still closed.

Falling off balance Blaze plummeted to the floor taking Silver with her, the feeling around her feet vanished. She finally couldn't take it anymore. Scurrying to her feet she clicked her fingers. Flames ignited. Light bloomed. The flame flickering in the cool breeze.

Spotting a candle in the corner of the room she went to light it, the very edges of the room not revealed by her burning embers. Silver clung relentlessly onto her arm which was making walking straight or steadily extremely difficult. Outlines of ancient furniture could be seen, but it was too dark at the moment to determine what they individually were. Blaze shivered as the floor seemed to be moving, wiggling beneath her feet, like water lapping in the darkness. They were surrounded by rats!

Blaze was getting closer to the candle, the shiny waxy surface now visible in her range of light. Blaze suddenly tripped over Silvers feet. Plunged into the table. Head hitting the surface painfully. The candle was next to her head. Sighing with relief she lit the already blackened string.

She rose back up. She froze. Breath hitched. She came face to face with a decaying corpse. Old blood all over its head. One mutated eye. Eye missing. Jaw gone. Screaming she fell back onto Silver. Who in turn screamed. They plummeted to the floor. Screams echoed throughout the ice cave. The rats fled in panic.

XXXX

The candle still lit kept the face in sight. They swiftly stood up, eyes never leaving the rotting face. They took a couple of steps back, Blazes flame still in hand. Breathing ragged and limbs trembling in pure shock and fear they looked for more around the room. Fearfully they crept ever so slowly around the edges where her flames light could not normally access.

They came across no other bodies which they were silently thankful for, Blaze lit eight candles situated in random spots around the room making it now fully visible. They preferred to stay as far away as possible from the corpse in the corner of the room, but even so it always felt like it was watching them with its one revolting, mutated eye.

The galley was filled with barrels which were predictably once filled with food, before they either rotted away or the rats had eaten it. Where the candle near the corpse sat upon a table there were also viciously sharp knifes adorning the surface...actually embedded deep within the thick table wood. Pots and pans dangling from their racks clinked and clanked in the chilling breeze as they finally calmed down after both of their panic attacks and screaming fits. Silver noticed a large hole in the ceiling revealing only darkness above.

Blaze discovered another set of stairs leading upwards into more darkness, having seen everything in the galley what new terrors awaited them in yet another unknown darkness and the rest of this haunting, forbidding ship. With flame in hand they nervously started to ascend these new steps into more darkness, the orange light flickering over the peeling red paint draping off the walls. Scratching claws of fleeing rats were heard in the new unknown darkness as Silver even now refused to remove his arm. Missy, fearing rats, also refused to remove herself from her hiding place in Silvers head quills.

It felt as if the ship was rocking as if riding on the waves making them lose their balance slightly as they climbed the stairs, the wooden steps creaking unpleasantly with each dreaded step. Step after step, creak after creak, the light slowly started to flow into the blackness above. Shoes thudded softly on a green carpet floor as they began to finally enter the room. Golden painting frames that were pinned to the damp oak wood walls glittered in the bright orange glow.

Looking around slowly examining the room Blaze couldn't help but think they were in the captain's quarters, which is strange considering a captain's quarters is never directly joined to a galley. Narrowing her eyes as she surveyed the room they trudged slowly into the centre, an ancient wooden desk was revealed that held some old parchment and a blue feather quill in its ink pot. Though Blaze discovered, after plucking up the courage, that the ink had completely dried up.

Silver remained on Blazes arm like a leech but had taken an interest in the map on a large piece of parchment adorning the desk, the ink dancing across the chart squares and plotting islands and notes. His free gloved hand traced a swirling line of black ink, watching it twist and turn around plotted islands, when he took his glove away the line was slightly smudged. This shouldn't happen if the ink was applied years ago and there was no ink in the pot.

"Err...Blaze?" Silver stammered, golden eyes fixed on his blackened glove fingertip. Turning around to Silver latched onto her arm she also noticed the strange wetness of the ink.

"Odd...It's almost as if it was just applied to the parchment," Blaze raised an eyebrow in confusion as she also touched the ink trail, once again the wet ink soaked into her gloved fingertip. "...But that's impossible."

Missy could sense something coming up the steps, her black and brown fur sticking on end with a supernatural chill. Silver was facing away from the top of the staircase so Missy could fully see it from his head quills; she trembled as the strange sensation grew as it got closer. Being an animal she could see the outline of something invisible emerging into the doorway, she reared back deeper into his spiky grey head quills as the thing seemed to look there way and creep towards them.

Urgently Missy tapped rapidly in his head quills, hoping that Silver would notice it. Silver twitched a little, but didn't turn around. The outline of something that shouldn't be there continued to slowly creep towards them. Across from the desk was a large oval shaped mirror, the golden frame had gathered dust and the mirror itself was filthy but easy to see through.

A chill suddenly found its way up Silvers spine, his shoulder felt freezing cold as if someone had put ice on it. Shuddering he touched his shoulder only to have the peculiar feeling of the gloved hand going through something. Missy was so scared she couldn't even screech as the outline touched Silvers shoulder, its invisible head outline seemed to turn slowly from Blaze to Silver. As if analysing them.

Blaze looked up from the brown old map on the desk, her topaz eyes reeling with suspicion. A cold chill rolled over her spine and tickled the edges of her fur, her tail twitching with the coldness. Her heart suddenly stopped. Her eyes went wide. Topaz eyes met the mirror. Freezing instantly in place.

"S-Silver!" She croaked out as she saw what looked like a pale man standing behind her; she sharply spun around in fright. There was nothing there. Snapping her head back to the mirror the figure put its white hand on her arm. A sudden tingle could be physically felt.

She flinched at the feeling and spun back around. Once again she was met with empty space. Turning back to the mirror once again revealed him in the reflection. Missy shook within Silvers quills, her small spider legs wrapping around herself for security. Silver had also noticed the reflection in the mirror and had gone deathly pale, clinging so tightly her arm could burst.

Ghostly skin wearing what looked like a captain's hat; he continued to stand behind them. His ghostly long coat fluttering as if an open window was allowing a breeze in. Its mouth was open a small fraction and his head was tilted to the side as if inspecting his visitors. They blinked with disbelief, the colour draining from both of their faces as he suddenly vanished from the reflection.

Spinning around their eyes darted around the room, Silver shakily squeezed Blazes arm as he raised his hand and pointed a trembling finger at the large blue feather quill in the empty ink pot. It was moving slowly in circles in the pot as if coating it with ink that didn't exist, the fine strings of softness of the feather twirling gracefully with a hidden force. Taking a frightened step back they watched in fear and wonder as a supernatural force lifted it into the air. Both gasped as a drop of black ink dripped onto the table...Ink that shouldn't even be there.

"Impossible..." Blaze muttered as the quill began to dance across the parchment map, correcting all the lines the two had accidently smudged out.

Without warning it flew into the air, dripping black ink on the green carpet as the quill elegantly crossed the room. A scribbling sound was heard as it began to do something on the damp wall. Blaze and Silver hesitantly followed and watched as the quill slowly drew curves across the wall, the ink never seeming to run out as it began to draw a circle. The circle didn't complete but before the quill joined the circle a slash made them jump as it abruptly made a straight line. They stared at the shapes as the quill seemed to hover in waiting.

"It's an `S` and `G` shape, but what do they mean?" Silver whispered to Blaze timidly and hid slightly behind her. Glimpsing at the signature on the map still on the table behind them it read `Captain Stewart Gobin.`

"It's the initials of his name." Blaze stated quietly. Both hit the ceiling with shock from a loud bang behind them and stared as a leather bound book lay on the floor, mysteriously sliding off the sturdy bookshelf on its own. Dust exploded in a miniature cloud around the book as they cautiously approached it, it didn't seem as if this spirit wanted to hurt them, more like enlighten them.

Picking it up suspiciously she rubbed the filth off the ancient black leather cover, unbuckling the rusty silver buckle with a click a strong smell of very old paper drifted to her nose as she gently opened the book.

"Journal of Captain Stewart Gobin, born in 1529," Blaze gasped in amazement at such a date, this was definitely an old book. The pages suddenly whipped through wildly on their own accord, making both yelp and Blaze almost drop it. Their hearts were beating frantically in their chests as they watched the brownish blur of flashing pages. Finally the pages stopped whizzing past when it reached a specific journal date.

"_Journal, date 25__th__ February 1550._

_And so it has come to pass, thy dreams and thy goal reached. The gem of the moon and sun is finally in my grasp! Bandits are attacking the ship; the crew is struggling to keep my trusty ship, `The Ocean Bracer` on track. I fear I must use the gems power, at the cost of my life and my crew. But I refuse to let those scallywags have my life long dream! In desperation with gem in hand I now write in you journal. I will put you back on this shelf, one day someone will find you and see the great wonders I have achieved in my short 21 years of life._

_Signed: Captain Stewart Gobin."_ Blaze read aloud and turned the page to find the rest blank, he had obviously died here. _The gem of the moon and sun, I fear I must use the gems power...what can all this lead to? _Blaze mentally quoted.

Silver also looked at the book in puzzlement before another book on the shelf caught his eye, he finally let go of Blazes arm after all this time and walked nervously closer to the bookcase. Blazes flame was the only thing in the room that could give light and so she also moved closer to allow Silver to read the covers.

Suddenly the ghost seemed to return and the journal flipped numerous pages on its own once more. It kept flicking through all the blank pages and now Blaze was intrigued, the sound of the whooshing pages made Silver also turn back with surprise. The spirit stopped when they reached a page near the back that had a hidden drawing, the drawing was drawn in black ink and was the shape of a star, the star made of two triangles. What really interested her were the eight plotted dots on the triangles, one was on each sharp point which made six, however there were two extra. One in the middle of a line of a triangle and one bang in the centre of the picture, each dot had a number written fashionably beside it.

They looked at each other with confusion before Blaze took over browsing the titles of the many ancient and worn out spines of the dust covered books, her slender finger trailing across the rough leather texture. Some were brown, some black and some were red, the titles sewn on with delicate precision. Giving a little sneeze from the stuffed up dust in here her feline eyes trailed along to the next shelf above.

Silver had finally plucked up the courage to venture on his own, although the fact that a ghost was watching them put him severely on the edge. Careful not to upset the spirit he remained in Blazes circle of limited light, fearing the darkness beyond the safety of her glow he suddenly noticed something glowing orange in the floor on the side of the room they hadn't explored yet.

"Here...use your power to carry the flame; I don't really need it with my night vision." Blaze held out her flaming palm with her keen eyes fixed on the star diagram, Silver obeyed and a green light enveloped the fire as it floated through the air and hovered around his head illuminating any space he desired.

Walking slowly to the strange glow in the floor he found that it was indeed what he had suspected, it was the hole he had seen down in the galley, the candles down below sending a flickering light up into the captain's quarters. Cautiously he peered over the edge and saw something he didn't expect to see.

"Blaze come over here!" He beckoned as he kneeled down by the huge hole in the floor.

"Wait a second!" Blaze snapped, she had seen a book that she wanted to pull out. The cover was bright red and her finger traced an engraving in the spine. An engraving of the star. It was not a part of the spine. It had obviously been engraved by a knife deliberately. It was slightly too high for her to grab properly even on tiptoe, her tail swishing with agitation.

Using his spare hand a green glow enveloped the book and Silver tried to ease it out. Silvers brow furrowed, it wouldn't budge. Dust floated down from the book as it rattled a little in the shelf. He forced a bit more mental power behind it. Suddenly the books' spine hit the shelf. A loud rattle filled the air. Silver blinked in shock. It was a hidden lever.

What Silver had noticed down through the hole was that the eight candles Blaze had lit before down in the galley, when looked at from above, made the eight positions of the dots in the star diagram. There was definitely something hidden down in the galley.

The lit candles suddenly burst from orange to green and Blaze came over to see what was going on. The now green glow drifted up to them and nothing seemed to happen. Blaze raised an eyebrow and looked at the diagram. She then clicked her fingers with a victorious smirk.

"I know what we have to do, stay here I'm going down." Blaze smirked triumphantly, giving the worried Silver the black leather book and running across the now ink stained green carpet to the stairs.

Carefully Blaze went down the steps, not wanting to run considering the woods damp and weakened state. When she reached the galley she completely ignored the corpse and Silver watched with interest from the hole as Blazes eyes wondered from green flame to green flame, her steps were slow and calculating as she went from one candle to another as if contemplating something dire. Silver looked at the diagram and realised she needed the order of the dots.

"That one first, what are you doing anyway?" Silver questioned pointing to a candle furthest away and Missy finally sensing that the spirit would indeed not cause harm came and rested on his shoulder, her beady eyes watching in fascination.

Without a word Blaze stood calmly in the middle, next to the candle in the middle of the room remembering that this particular candle was the last one to do. She slowly raised her arm at the designated candle, the small green tongue of flame flickered with her powers as her palm faced it. Clenching her fist tightly shut the flame vanished with a small puff of smoke. Realising what she was doing Silver made a noise of understanding and examined the star diagram again.

"Then..." He hesitated as the written numbers two and three were so close to each other that he couldn't tell which number was for which dot. Silver began to sweat with the knowledge that he was uncertain. Blaze gazed up at him from below impatiently, her lovely feline face glazed over with a green radiance from the small green flames surrounding her. "...That one, I think."

Blaze stared at the green embers directly opposite from the one she had just put out; she slowly raised her palm...why did she feel that this was wrong. Her hand closed into a tight fist. The candle suddenly began to spark violently. It was the wrong flame!

A sudden jolt rocked the floor. Sounds of mechanisms clinked and clonked in her ears. Bracing herself she looked around wildly. Trying to find what had been triggered. All of a sudden it stopped. Blaze gave a sigh of relief and closed her eyes; the trap was probably so old and rusty that it was faulty. Opening her eyes she screamed. The corpse from before was only a couple of metres away. The walls around her were closer and filled with spikes! The dead body lodged within them! The spikes had obviously been there the whole time, the body always having been stuck within them.

"You better not give me another wrong answer Silver! By the looks of it if I get one more wrong I am a gonna!" Blaze growled up to him, her ears folded against her head in terror. The rusty spiked walls were so close that it made a box around the candles, surrounding her from every angle; the corpse was really off putting. All the barrels that had been there before were miraculously intact, forced closer by the appending spikes. The pots and pans on the rack would fall next if the walls moved again. Hopefully it wouldn't.

"Sorry! Alright, that means that one," Silver pointed to one right next to the wrong flame. "Is the second and the one you just tried is the third."

Blaze nodded and once again raised her palm; sweat trickled down her head as the tension grew with the constant view of the unmoving spikes around her. Shakily she clenched her hand shut and the green fire reassuringly disappeared. Sighing with relief she moved her arm to the flame that had triggered the walls. Closing her fist showed this was correct and the flame vanished.

This continued with luckily no more mistakes and Blaze gave a smile of utter relief as she turned to the candle literally next to her in the centre of the star, this was the final one. She leaned in to the waxy candle, her lips parted as she gave a gentle blow and the green fire flickered out. Leaving only a small puff of smoke in its wake.

Darkness consumed her with the final flame gone; Silver looked alarmed and controlled his own flame to float down there through the hole to see what was going on. A small rumbling vibrated through the ship as the spiked walls retracted back to their normal distance, the metal grate under Blaze suddenly shook and she stepped off quickly as it slid out revealing a wooden spiral staircase. Silver floated down through the hole with a greenish glow, book in hand and Missy on his shoulder. Landing near Blaze they nodded to each other before beginning to descend down into the unknown.

**END OF CHAPTER**

**I got really jumpy and skittish doing this one; I did it late at night and kept looking around me and feeling that someone was watching me. I was afraid to look in any mirrors as well XD **

**Writing things like this at that time of night when it is really dark outside IS NOT ADVISED! XD**


	24. Realising things

Realising things

A purplish sky signalled the beginning of a dawn of a new day, the cloudless sky starting to glow in the distance over the golden sands. A single gust of wind whipped up the sand and swirled it through the air, luckily Sonic and Shadow managed to get back under the shelter of the rock as the atmosphere immediately began to heat up.

With a tired groan Sonic fidgeted under the shadowed shelter of the rock, groggily turning his emerald eyes to the black pug that panted as it stayed strangely close to Shadow at all times. Sitting up ever so slightly Sonic leaned on one peach arm and stared exhaustedly out of the circular hole the brown rock seemed to have naturally made, he stared out over the glittering sands as the top of the burning sun began to ascend over the dunes ahead.

Royal blue eyelids continued to try and close, but Sonics' constantly thinking brain was forcing him to stay awake as Amina's words once again echoed hauntingly through his uneasy mind. **"You must head east from the entrance to the city, keep running east until you reach the `Suns eye`. Beneath the eye, buried beneath centuries of sand...you will find the buried temple."**

Sighing with irritation he just watched as the sun rose ever so slowly higher, warning them that it was going to get incredibly hot extremely quickly. Sonics' ear kept flicking to Shadow's soft snores and he couldn't help but get distracted as he turned his soft gaze to his already snoozing partner.

Shadow was lying causally on his back, chest rising calmly as he slept deeply. Sonics' eyes were fully open as he stared at Shadows' ever so lush, enticing, white chest fur. He stared at the prominent muscles of his dark counterparts black chest, he was just so tempted to go over and lay on him. To go feel his strong muscles, to feel his gentle breaths against his head, to snuggle into that soft white pillow on his chest that Sonic always thought made him look handsome.

"Oh God..." Sonic palmed smacked his forehead in disbelief with a small pink tinge to his cheeks. "I'm thinking like a damn high school girl, I need to get a grip. I'm a male too and this is seriously hurting my pride."

Little did Sonic know that he had unintentionally crawled closer to Shadow, he couldn't help it, they hadn't been close for so long because of the rules in Sharmar. Sonic narrowed his eyes as he found himself leaning slightly over Shadow's sleeping face, now that he thought about it they hadn't been close ever since they had come back from Adabat. Sonic's eyes looked almost upset as he realised...they had been ever so slowly getting further and further apart.

The black pug was sitting next to the two of them and was watching with its cute, shiny, black eyes intently at the blue hedgehog. Sonic sighed dejectedly as he withdrew from his partners' enticing form, it wasn't the pug that had made him change his mind...more like he would rather Shadow be awake and willing. _What if...we've gotten too far apart_, Sonic thought as he moved away from Shadow to return to his place by the giant circular hole. _Then again, it's not the end of the world if we break up...whatever makes him happy I guess; _Sonic mentally shrugged and stared back out into the nearly full sun above the horizon.

Shadow cracked an eye open, he could feel it from here. He could feel the strange loneliness that was resonating from the blue hedgehog as he currently stared out into the rising sun, unknowing that Shadow had been awake the entire time. Remaining silent with his signature frown his gorgeous ruby eyes stared at Sonics' back, those crimson orbs looking orange as they reflected the rays of the rising sun.

Shadow glared half-heartedly as he noticed Sonic was so exhausted that he could hardly stay awake, Shadow didn't need to sleep but Sonic did and he was struggling to keep his dazzling emeralds open.

The pug whined into the silence and scratched its neck with a hind leg as sand grains irritated the tender spot there, making the back of its neck sore as the sand scraped the scalp beneath the dusty black fur. _Rare Breed seems...troubled_, the pug thought as its adorable black eyes watched Shadow with deep worry.

"Sleep, Faker." Shadow groaned coldly, as if the frozen mental barriers had returned.

Sonic jumped at the unexpected voice, but felt a horrid chill shiver up his spine at the cold undertone of his partners' words. However, when he turned to meet Shadows' eyes with his own tired ones, he saw the comforting look in the half open red eye staring back as the other was fully closed by a delicate black eyelid. Sonic instantly felt himself relax; Shadow was just being Shadow after all.

"Ruff! Ruff!" The black pug barked happily as the tense atmosphere vanished, standing up and wagging its cute curved tail with a small pink tongue panting away.

"Be quiet...you demon." Shadow scowled at the pug, hoping to frighten it off just like all the other animals did when he gave them his freezing glare. But Shadow just sighed exasperatedly as the pug just wagged its tail faster and looked at the black hedgehog with more admiration than what should be possible.

_Rare Breed! Want approval from Rare Breed!_ The pug thought as it ran in a little circle on the sandy stone, grains of sand being churned up into the air.

Sonic just watched the scene; he would never admit out loud just how warming it was. Leaning his back against the cool wall he sighed in relief as the sun now hovered above the horizon, the desert of Sharmar already taking on a wavy haze of heat in the distance. The haze made the sun and distant sand dunes shimmer like water as Sonic stared out of the hole in their overshadowed hide away. Drooping eyes suddenly shot open and widened as realisation hit. Bolting up straight Sonic blinked in disbelief. Shadows' ear twitched at the abrupt movement, waiting in his usual patient silence for Sonic to speak what was on his mind.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me..." Sonic hissed and palm smacked his already sweaty forehead, Shadow raised an eye ridge with his signature frown at the others behaviour. "I can't believe we were so stupid!"

"_We? _Whatever this is do not drag me down with you Faker," Shadow growled half-heartedly with half-lidded eyes, lying on his side as he supported his head with one hand on his naturally tanned chin. "Stupidity is in your personality guidelines."

The pug seemed to agree with its assumed master as it sat comfortably next to Shadow and barked.

"Oh man just drop it for a second and you dog, shush!" Sonic finished in annoyance as he pointed a gloved finger at the pug with a stern stare, the pug just cocked its head innocently to the side with a little whine.

"Alright, I am listening." Shadow smirked with fully closed eyes, his voice low and smooth like silk.

"We're right on top of it." Sonic stated bluntly as if it was the most obvious thing of the century and Shadow opened his eyes briefly with a confused expression as he stared at the uneven floor in thought.

"What, pray tell, are you talking about?" Shadow asked with a sigh and looked up to make eye contact with Sonics' now extremely excited emeralds.

"Look out there," Sonic began as he pointed out of the hole. "What do ya see?"

Shadow rolled his eyes and moved his gaze to observe out of the large circular hole of stone to see the rising sun now a full circle in the sky hovering over the sandy horizon. The whole desert was covered in a dangerous red glow as an occasional breeze swept up the sand, it did not look like there was anything of importance and Shadow just shook his head gently.

"I see sand, a rising sun, extreme heat and a blue hedgehog who is being incredibly vague as usual. Yes, the exact same thing I see every morning here," Shadow answered sarcastically and Sonic just huffed in disbelief. "Miss anything?"

"Nothing except the most important factor, think about what Amina said and try again you moron." Sonic droned in his usual cocky voice, his signature grin plastered across his face. Narrowing his ruby eyes at the other Shadow just turned his attention once again to the hole, too hot to bother arguing.

Shadow looked at every detail, examining the way the sun shimmered from the intense heat even though the day had only just begun. Eyes trailed over the outline of the sand dunes, analysing the way they curved and the way the breeze swept over them. He stared at the now red sky, trying to deduct anything of importance.

_Maybe...I am looking in too much detail_, Shadow thought suddenly and decided to sit up, _maybe I just need to take a step back and look at it simply, with Sonics' simple mind _he _obviously did. I just need to look at it for what it is and not for what might be hidden._ So Shadow sat up and leaned against the opposite wall to the hole in the wall, looking at it for it was. Instead of looking out of the hole he looked at the whole thing.

Eyes suddenly blinked and Shadow expertly concealed his shock as he began to notice just what Sonic saw through his simple eyes.** "Keep running east until you reach the `Suns eye`. Beneath the eye, buried beneath centuries of sand...you will find the buried temple."**

Shadow sat up slowly and leaned forward a little as realisation hit him like a ton of the bricks, this stone that had sheltered them for the entire time they had been out here was the eye! Both he and Sonic had been running straight past it for days on end, lying under it for shelter looking for something that was literally in front of them the whole time! The circular hole was the eye shape and the full sun now directly in the middle of the hole was the pupil, it was the `Suns eye`.

"...Unbelievable," Shadow groaned in frustration and crossed his arms in his signature action. "We _are_ right on top of it; we have wasted so much time."

"Then we better-" Sonic interrupted himself with a big yawn as his eyes glistened drowsily with tiredness, "-get started."

"No," Shadow's low voice rattled Sonics' short temper even though it had an uncommon gentle tone to it. "You need to rest first; we can move the rock and dig when night falls."

"Don't treat me as if I'm weak! I've forced myself through a lot worse hardships than this in the past!" Sonic spat angrily as he glared at his lover, Shadow was unfazed.

"Do not be stubborn Faker; you know that it is too hot to go out and do such labour and you are exceptionally exhausted. Face it, the factors are against you." Shadow reasoned with a cold edge to his voice as he cracked an eye open calmly to look at his seething partner, Sonics' eyes were soft signalling that even through his stubborn glaring he knew Shadow was right.

"Fine!" Sonic replied defiantly after several minutes of silence as he lay down and put his arms behind his head to rest on. As royal blue eyelids closed gradually he continued in an exhausted whisper, "but I won't like it."

"Whatever, Faker." Shadow muttered softly and his mouth upturned into a rare smile as he noticed the other was already snoozing.

The pug saw the rare smile and panted happily, deciding to go over and roll onto its back to sleep next to Shadow. Shadow looked down with a slight glare at the pug as it rubbed its back against the cool stone floor, panting away with its cute little paws flapping in the air. Shadow and the pug just seemed to have a staring contest, silence enveloping them as they stared into each others eyes for what felt like forever. Feeling his eye twitch Shadow suddenly flicked his eyes away in frustration, he could not believe that a dog could hauntingly stare into your soul like that!

"Alright, you can lay there you demon..." Shadow surrendered with a growl and felt a vein pop on his forehead as the pug licked his arm joyfully in appreciation. "Do not get used to it though."

The pug seemed to grin back at him as Shadow lay back down onto his back next to Sonic, eyes trailing over his partners' peach chest muscles through his lush fur as he moaned contentedly in his slumber. Gingerly, Shadow raised a hand and brushed his fingertips gently across Sonics' smooth face. Before he could realise it he was tenderly stroking Sonics' cheek as if he had been holding back the urge for a long time.

Why he couldn't do this when Sonic was awake he didn't know, but deep down he was starting to realise that being loving to Sonic when he was asleep and unknowing of the contact was starting to make Sonic think he didn't love him as much as he had before, since he did none of this when his blue counterpart was awake. This thought secretly pained the normally emotionless hedgehog and he frowned as he watched his partners' calm, handsome, sleeping face.

"You do realise I love you, even if I do not particularly show it well, right?" Shadow whispered his confession in his velvety voice and watched as Sonics' ear twitched in his sleep. "In fact, the last time I said I loved you openly was that battle with Mephiles, I have not said those words to you even once when you were conscious since. And it seems only now that I am starting to notice just how much my behaviour affects you."

As he closed his eyes with relief from his confession he distinctively felt the pressure of the pug curling up into a ball against his side to sleep, but the weight inside him had not fully lifted since Sonic had not been awake to hear the sincere speech.


	25. SORRY!

Sorry! Note!

If you guys haven't gathered by the size this means that this is not a chapter and I think you already know what I'm gonna say if I am actually posting a note. Sadly, I have gotten bored of this story and because of the large time difference I have other ideas for stories that I REALLY want to put on. I have a really good idea for a Harry Potter Snarry story and I really badly want to get it out while the second part is still at the cinema, hopefully you can understand that

I am really sorry if this is of any inconvenience but _I_ have to enjoy doing this too and to be completely honest I forced the last chapter up. So for now The Return of Mephiles: The Book of Moon, is in hold. However please give my Snarry story a try if you're interested and even if you are not particularly into the couple I am sure you will enjoy the humour, action and adventure it contains. If you liked these factors in this sonadow story then you will love it in this one! So please give it a try if you want while you're waiting for me to get my arse back in gear and do this oneXD.

To be honest, I feel like this story is a lost cause because there are hardly any readers or reviewers, all except one person which is `**soniccouplelover`** who has been immensely supportive of me and my work and so I really have to thank, sorry mate! So, I would prefer to write a story that would be read more and not a waste of my time typing away, which is why I am doing a Snarry because it is a completely different audience to my usual one.

Don't get me wrong though, I will continue it one day when I have got all the other stories that I really want to write out of the way...just not now Hope you guys that have been reading it forgive me and understand where I'm coming from.

xXThank youXx

xXSonicgirl582Xx


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